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Post by Brian Garrett on Aug 22, 2012 11:49:38 GMT -5
Brian headed out to the forest, his home away from home. The school had died down again as classes became inconsistent and students stopped trickling in. He hadn't expected it, but it hadn't exactly surprised him. It took a huge movement to bring a school back from the brink. There were so many moving parts, and they just hadn't all quite been in motion this time around. He knew that Hogwarts would eventually find the right ingredients, but now simply hadn't been the right time. With so many alumni around the world, though, they had a huge pool of possibility for the future.
He sat down on a stump and looked out at the trees, which were swaying in the cool wind. Creatures darted by, shadowy figures rarely seen by outsiders. There were times when he felt the forest was much more serene than the lawn or the lake. Howls, creaks, and rustling of leaves. The sounds of the forest. Brian hadn't quite given up on teaching, but he knew he had failed. As the students stopped coming, he had stopped caring as much. He'd simply fallen off.
His son, Ian, had still been going back and forth between his and Jadeian's houses, and he still felt entirely bad about the situation. He missed them both constantly. He saw Ian quite often, but he only saw Jadeian in passing. They had talked about patching up the situation, but nothing had come of it yet. This stump had often served as his home when Ian wasn't at his house. He came out here to think, to blend with nature, and to hunt. Hunting had been rather rare lately, as he only took what he needed to survive. There was no shortage of blood, but one had to find it.
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Post by Jadeian DuPree on Sept 18, 2012 23:50:45 GMT -5
Sssslllluuuurrrrpppp.
Jadeianfurrowed her brow at the sound. The sound was familiar but due to her concentration on the latest issue of the Daily Prophet she shook her head slightly and continued reading. Turns out there were plenty of articles speculating, once again, at the disappearance of the students from Hogwarts castle. Did anyone really know why this happens? Letting out a deep sigh she finished the article and moved on to find some lighter reading as she flipped through the pages of the newspaper. Life was stressful as of late now that she was jobless and had all this time on her hands. There were times were she literally broke down and attempted to join in with Ian's conversations of Quidditch. They were not very successful attempts she had to admit and there were times were Ian just got so frustrated with her in trying to explain things.
Sssslllluuuurrrrpppp.
There it was again. Jadeian's face scrunched up and she looked over the top of her paper to find her son, bowl up to his lip, slurping the last of whatever he was eating from the vessel. Shaking her head once more, she folded up her newspaper and laid it on the table. It only took a certain look from her and Ian would know that whatever he was doing he had better stop it right then. Ian stopped his slurping immediately, laid his bowl on the table and gave her a look that apologized without saying it. "Did your father teach you those table manners or did you pick up that bad habit at Hogwarts?" She softened her gaze and smirked at him. Ian was such a good kid and she could not have been more blessed to have him in her life. She wondered for a moment if he knew just how great she thought he was.
Silence fell over the room as Ian cleaned up after himself and started looking through the newspaper Jadeian had finished reading. After a while she looked back over to Ian as an idea popped into her head. "Say, why don't you and I go see what your father is up to?" Ian would never admit it, but from what she noticed, he always enjoyed family time together. This was probably due to the fact that family time together rarely happened as her relationship with Brian had regressed sadly. "If my intuition is correct, on a day like this with no classes to teach I'd say he's somewhere in the Forbidden Forest climbing in a tree or sitting in a hole in the ground." Jadeian chuckled to herself and watched Ian bundle up for the weather with an entertained smile on his face. She followed suit and soon they were out the door and making their way to the forest.
Jadeian felt little hesitation in seeing Brian again. Actually, Ian usually served to lighten the air when she was around Brian. It was about time they work on their friendship again for Ian's sake and she felt justified in their little drop in visit in the woods because of this. After a bit of walking around trying to find Brian, Jadeian took a set on a fallen tree and frowned slightly to her son. "Usually I'm better at finding him than this. If I can't sense him I can sense the blood from his hunts."
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Post by Brian Garrett on Sept 19, 2012 0:20:44 GMT -5
Brian's emotions had been getting the better of him lately. The forest helped him clear his mind, but he was constantly being distracted by the noises. A twig would crack and he would whip around, just to make sure that he wasn't being hunted by a centaur. He'd been trekking through this patch of land for ages and ages, but he didn't think he would ever get over the slight paranoia. He loved the quietness, but he still felt as though he was being watched. Perhaps he should head back to the house. Surely it wasn't healthy to be so constantly consumed by your own thoughts. Eventually it got to the point where reality faded in favor of a false alternative. Yeah, he really should leave. Maybe he would stop by Jadeian's, just to say hello.
As he started up to leave the forest, Brian watched a rabbit dart by his little stump. It seemed to be running from something. He turned around and found himself face to face with a small wolf. "Well..." he started, deciding that one of the two of them was probably going to get the rabbit. He slowly hopped up from the stump and crept out toward the trees where the little bugger had disappeared into. He then found a steady pace and began chasing. But what was that terrible slurping noise? He couldn't think of any creatures that made such an oddly irritating sound. After chasing the rabbit around a few bushes and through a creek, Brian turned a corner to find two unlikely visitors, including the slurping culprit. Jadeian and his son Ian were sitting on a fallen tree in the middle of a clearing.
Quickly standing to his feet, sopping wet from chasing the rabbit through the creek, he cleared his throat and proceeded to walk in their direction. "My two favorite people" he smiled, awkwardly trying to hide the water dripping from his clothes. "You know, I was wondering when I'd see you" Brian hurried to sit next to them on the tree. After deciding that his appearance was a little too obvious to conceal, he smiled and told them that he had gone for a swim in the river. Of course, his little adventure had been all for naught, as the rabbit had run away, hopping past Jadaian and Ian.
"It's been awhile" he shrugged, knowing that Jadeian had probably guessed what he had been up to. She and Ian were both vampires, so he didn't need to conceal anything around the two of them.
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Post by Jadeian DuPree on Sept 19, 2012 23:39:43 GMT -5
Jadeianturned to Ian as the Forbidden Forest began to bellow noises from nearby. From the sounds of it, it seemed to be the familiar sounds of a predator on the hunt. She moved to face the forest in the direction from which the commotion was coming from. Suddenly, a sodden Brian made his way into the clearing in which she and her son Ian sat. A decently sized rabbit quickly hopped past and if she would have realized at the time that it had been what Brian was after she would have snatched it up for him. Instead, the rabbit hurriedly made its way through the clearing and into the brush and away from its animal vampire pursuer. She could not help but smile slightly for she always thought that Brian's preying on small animals had been such a weird way to deal with his vampire needs.
Jadeian buttoned Ian's coat up a little more and pulled her own tighter around herself; it was definitely a chilly February day. Brian's clothes were soaked and this would just not do. She pulled her wand from her coat pocket and twirled it with her fingers for a moment as she searched her brain for the right spell to preform. With a swish and flick of her wand in Brian's direction she was able to dry his clothing completely. The added bonus of this spell made his clothes as warm as if they had just come out of a muggle dryer. "There you go. I cannot have you getting sick Brian. You'll get Ian sick then and I'll have to quarantine and be roped into taking care of you both!" She chuckled a little and was glad that there had been very few colds between the two of them this winter season. Knock on wood.
"Has it been awhile since you've had blood? You know there are other ways of doing this Brian. There's services that provide blood for vampires to keep them compliant and not off biting humans. It's how I've kept my needs under control for years, same for Ian. That animal blood can't be cutting it for you."
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Post by Brian Garrett on Sept 21, 2012 0:59:00 GMT -5
Brian actually hadn't noticed how chilly he had been until his clothes were dry and radiating warmth. At first, the sudden heat made him flinch a bit, but as the warmth settled in, he began to feel much better. His fingers felt a bit less frozen. The rabbit had gotten away, and he had lost his blood for the day, but he felt a lot better.
"Has it been awhile?" He repeated the question in order to stall for time. It had been awhile, actually, but did he really want to admit that he had trouble drinking blood from a vial? It seemed so unnatural. Growing up as a vampire had never been easy, and he had often stored blood in his room, because he was uncomfortable hunting. He didn't want anyone to know about what he felt was a dirty secret. He drank blood from a vial because it had been discreet. Now, his condition was out in the open and he had accepted it. “Well, you know, maybe a couple of months” he shrugged, as if that was nothing at all. In reality, he dealt with feeling drained every day. He was actually happy to see Jadeian and Ian, although he wished it had been at his house rather than while he had been chasing a rabbit through the woods, sopping wet.
“The animal blood cuts it when I can catch it” he smiled, although he did feel a tad pale. The Ministry provided blood, but it was often stored for weeks before it ever reached the vampires’ hands. Fresh blood provided him an entirely different sensation. It was almost as though he could feel it blending with his own blood, restoring him. The Ministry’s blood kept him healthy, but it lacked elements that he felt he needed. Brian had always been one to hang around the forest anyway, so he felt he might as well hunt a little while he was out. The sense of adventure was almost as important as the blood itself.
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