Lloyd remained silent as she watched Lyle construct his oversized sandwich, forking random pieces of fruit from her plate occasionally. Once he finished slapping random food items onto the two pieces of bread, her eyes scanned over his work, scrutinizing his ability.
”Huh? Oh, I’ll be busy?” Lloyd blinked, about to open her mouth and make a comment before she sealed her lips back together, realizing that her words would probably be overlooked as that thoughtful look filled his facials. It wasn’t misplaced that Lloyd should think that such a boy as Lyle would be constantly busy, so she really didn’t expect him to make such a comment as he had.
His sudden action surprised her, thus causing the Ferre girl to jump a little before rubbing her arm distractedly and returning to what she had previously been doing, relief rushing through her as he obviously had remembered something or other.
”You two go on ahead,” The girl blinked once more, her hearing working at following the fast-talking boy’s speech, shrugging as he disentangled himself from the bench of their table.
”Haf vun! Jeers!” Once Lyle had wormed his way out of the hall, Lloyd licked her lips before speaking. “Was it just me, or did that sound oddly like a Transylvanian accent?” She turned to Vin, bringing her index and middle finger up to her face and mimicking fangs.
Once more she picked up her fork and stabbed a piece of cantaloupe, bringing it up to her mouth and chewing it thoughtfully.
”Awright,” Lloyd flashed him a small grin, but dropped it as she watched him plunge a strawberry into gravy. Her right eyebrow arched in questioning, and wrinkled her nose slightly as he proceeded to eat it.
"What's the 'something' chickadee?" Even though she wasn’t too keen on his new food combination, she sunk her fork lightly into it, accepting the offering anyway. “I’m not much of a gravy girl.” Her tone was thoughtful, though it was nothing more than a side comment as she bit down on the strawberry. She stuck her tongue out, quickly washing the taste down with some water and clean fruit.
As soon as she was satisfied with her mouth being clean, she finally spoke up. “Well, er, I kind of wanted to do some hiking to find a new place to practice. I’m… not… really, well I don’t like it when other people-….” She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to get the wording right. “It’s easier for me to practice alone somewhere I know people won’t bother me much. I mean, sure, I could find somewhere inside the castle, but I prefer it outside. And, well, I’m not asking to go all the way to the other side of the island or to the tallest peak or anything like that. Somewhere close by of course.” Lloyd nodded, nibbling on some pretzels. “Plus I’d rather have a partner in case I get lost or fall of a cliff or twist my ankle, y’know?”
Naire was still standing there, his hands stuffed into his pockets again before he finally took one out long enough to bring it up and gently push Chopstick’s beak together so the bloody bird would stop killing his ears. “It’s fine buddy.” He muttered to the bird, returning his hand to its cloth den.
He was still a little dazed by the whole ordeal, so he forgot what he was doing, simply staring at the puddle in the middle of the floor.
”There you are!” The Vulpes boy was shaken out of his blank state by the loud call of his friend. He blinked a few times as Lyle came over with a very large and unruly sandwich in his clutches. And it seemed to be leaving a trail of goop. “Yes, here I am.” His eyebrow rose a bit and he shrugged.
Naire looked up into the Ferre boy’s face as he began to speak again.
”You aren’t mad at me, are you? I mean, last night and all, and Vin’s right, I’m sure, but I worry, you know…” Naire was about to answer him, and also ask him what he meant by Vin being right, but Lyle kept talking, cutting off the action before it could even be started.
”I mean, well, just, you aren’t mad at me, are you?” He shrugged again before answering. “Eh, it’s fine, you looked pretty busy anyway,” The Vulpes was referring to Lyle not meeting him after class, and then continued to settle the boy’s unreasonable fears. “Nah, I’m not mad at you. I didn’t catch a reason to be?” His eyes got caught by the motion coming from his sandwich, and his eyes strayed down to the glob on his shoe. “You should probably put a napkin under that or something. Maybe more bread.” He nodded, walking around the pool and into the Great Hall. “I haven’t eaten yet, so I hope you don’t mind heading back into the Hall again.” He turned his head to look at his friend once more as he spoke.
Chopstick chirped again, and Naire turned his head, jumping a bit and shifting over to the side, narrowly missing an unseen small puddle of mush left by that sandwich. He wasn’t about to slip twice in the same twenty or what minutes. Naire sighed, rubbing his head and heading towards the Vulpes’ table, hoping Lyle was following him.
At least a little relief presented itself to her when Victor joined; she wouldn’t have to take care of it on her own then. She rubbed her left arm worriedly, quickly taking a left once they went down the hall a bit, her hand coming into contact with the railing of one of the staircases.
Her lips were pressed tightly together as she scaled the steps, her mind preoccupied with exactly what needed to be done next. They just had to get up to the third level and into the deeper parts of the library. To say the least, it was fairly uneventful getting to the library on the second floor.
Mutely, Teiver made a swift walk past the rows and rows of bookshelves and past one of the many areas for the desks. She peered back every so often to make sure that Victor was keeping up and following closely. She was fairly quick about getting to the internal spiral staircase, and once more her hand clutched the railings as she hopped up it, skipping two at a time until they finally came up to the opening of the third floor.
The Vulpes gave fair pause to look around fully, and make sure that no one was doing any reading, which she doubted considering it was lunch time anyway. She let out a huff of breath before striding promptly towards the back, keen eyes scanning one bookshelf in particular. It had a fair coating of dust to her dismay, but she really didn’t have time with which to spare in cleaning. Her index finger traced the books without actually touching them until she came to an old gray-blue tome with it colors and words faded.
Teiver leaned forward until she was about two inches away from touching it, and made sure to control her breathing so she wouldn’t inhale dust. Bringing her hand up to her mouth, she muttered something between her fingers before reaching out to the book’s spine and carefully pulling it out from its aligned position with the others. However, she only pulled it out so much, not actually wresting it from its place.
And without doing anything else, she turned around and hurriedly made her leave of the library, passing a few rooms and abandoned classrooms out in the hall to the fourth floor staircase. Of course from here on it only got complicated. Nonetheless Teiver led Victor onwards. If they chanced upon getting caught, her mind was already working on reasonable excuses. At least she hadn’t seen or run into
Hardy; Her hand, unbidden, clenched slightly, and she rolled her eyes at the thought of the boy. Well, she was pretty certain she hadn’t seen him. It wouldn’t have been surprising, as her mind was definitely focused on more pressing matters than the immature dealings of Justin.
She quietly slipped into a room, dragging Victor in with her, as a prefect walked past. She twitched her fingers quietly before poking her head out, then abandoning the momentary place of hiding. She blinked, looking over at Victor for a second before continuing to walk down the halls to the corridor where the winding stairs of the forbidden levels awaited.
RPG
