Thicket of Trees

...

Nadya appeared with a violent crack, nearly crashing head first into tree bark, the only thing stopping her was her hands flying out in front of her to stop her. She immediately stepped back, her back meeting another tree just as another wave of chills slithered down her spine. She rolled up her sleeve, almost considering the removal of the invisible taboo thread that lay just beneath her flesh, but with much restrain, she lowered her arm again, and this time raised her wand, standing tall, her senses sharp. She didn't know what Aries was planning, but she didn't like it. How many more times was the Headmistress going to utter her name so freely?

Nadya snarled as she whipped her wand back down at her side and started pacing back and forth. Had her decision back up on that mountain mean nothing? Or was she just a spineless coward?

She stopped, taking a deep breath, and forcing her muscles to relax, snapping out of her panic. She'd been through this already- Nadya had been through a lot over all this time, she couldn't give up on her goal just because Lestrange was trying to shake her. Nadya didn't care if Lestrange knew what she was planning or not, it didn't matter.

*Spring was in full spring, greeting Aries in the thicket of trees. The sun was high over head, a slight breeze blow lightly through the leaves. Even the birds hummed their merrily little tune as they hope to one branch to the other. Surrounded by all this beauty but Aries hardly notice her surrounding.

Aries who was in the midst of the trees was not alone. She was faced to faced by a winged horse who neigh lightly as Aries stroked his brown lush coat. This was a sight to see, but it gets better. Aries who was notorious for wearing curvaceous dress that insinuated her features, today she wore a navy blue riding coat, thick black gloves, and tan pants. Her long flowing locks were tamed down into one long ponytail. Even her usually deadly cold stare was a soft grey as she had only eyes for "my pegasus," or so Aries called him.*

*Even though Aries was preoccupied by the Pegasus, she was fully aware of her surroundings. The crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs alerted both the winged beast and Aries to a intruder. With one flick of her wrist, her wand was in her hand, and with another she conjured the trees to come alive. Thick branches like snakes coiled for a moment before shooting off in the direction of the new comer, their vines enchanted to immobilize the person but not harm them...much.

The winged horse kicked his hind legs as if frighten by the unforeseen forces manipulating nature around him. Aries patted the horse several times muttering words of comfort until he settled down. Than she turn to the sight of her prey. Wither it was muggle or wizard, she would deal them accordingly.*

*The winged horse followed close behind Aries, as Aries walk into the shades of the tree, where the intrude was trap. It seem almost unfair, how the little fly could get caught so easily by the Venus fly trap, but there she was coiled up in living vines. The child seem mift that she was caught so easily, but not terrified.*

"Well...Well, so we have a little witch on our hands. And I thought this might be as simple as modifying ones memory."

*She gave a false pouty face.*

"Shame."

"Grovelling is so unbecoming of a woman, my dear."

*Her long fingers grasp the intruders chin, to force the child to look at her. She was beyond terrified of Aries. Just looking into her teary eyes, feeling the child tremble as she fought the restraints holding her in place. Aries had all the control. This child lived or died by Aries whim.

One of the vines unraveled itself around the child's waist, and handed the backpack to Aries. She held the backpack up to examine the content.*

"A thief and a groveler, my my you are a petty woman, if I do say so myself. I might just have to turn you into the proper authorities.*

*With her wand, she made each and every object float out of the bag, not daring to touch any of them knowing that one of the items could be cursed.*

She grew quiet as the woman had the contents of her bag floating in the air. A silver ring with an emerald jewel, a pen that happened to be at the bottom of her bag, her wand, and then a gold jeweled chalice and a pendant of a symbol that meant nothing to Carl. It was what she'd been told to take, so it was among the merchandise.

This woman, although incredibly frightening, was starting to irritate Carl. It seemed like no matter where she went, she ran into trouble just like this. All somebody had to do was point their wand, and she was at their mercy. She was tired of it. Tired of being afraid. Now, however, it seemed likely that she wouldn't have another chance to change that. She couldn't tell, with this poker faced stranger.

*The first few objects that hover in the air was no consequential to Aries, but Aries plucked the wand out of the air, and place it, in her coat pocket for safe keeping. The child could poke her eye out with that thing. The next object caught her attention. The gold jeweled chalice caught thelight, casting a saphire blue, ruby red and emerald green refracted glow to the surrounding area. Next came the pendent, that was the objects she caught, holding it up by the string to examine it more closely. Her eyes flash with surprise, before turning a deadly cold. She turn her fierce deadly eyes toward the girl, intent to kill if she did not get the right answer.*

"Who is your client? Or whom did you still these objects from?"

Carling made no hesitation in answering, as the sinister-looking woman turned her gaze upon the trapped little fox. "His name was White! He asked me to take it from his ex, I swear! God, you aren't her are you? You can totally have the stuff, he fired me anyways!" She shrunk back into her little cage of branches, trying to make herself as small as possible.

*A shriek of a laughter escaped Aries lips, even the winged beast tensed up, sensing danger near.*

"Is that what 'Mister White' told you? Foolish child, never take information given as face value."

*She clutch the pendent in her left hand, holding out towards the child. With a single word the pendent turn to dust before their very eyes. The remnants of the pendent was caught in the breeze and its ashes were scattered among the trees.

She again, plucked one of the items out of the air, this time it was the bejeweled chalice. Without a word she turn and took her position next to the winged horse, placing the chalice in one of her traveling bags, attached to her saddle. Than Aries put one of her feet in the stirrup, and lifted herself on the back of the said horse. The winged horse neighed once more nervously, as he took two steps forth and one step back to get his balance back. Aries could feel that the horse wanted to be away from here, to be get away from what was to come.

Aries looked down upon the helpless girl, who was trapped in the ever twisting vines and branches of her spell. Did Aries took pity on her or was it the thrill of knowing what to come that Aries did what she did.*

"'Mister White' knows that you failed in your mission. You have about a minute to leave here, now, before he sends out his goons to clean up the mess, if you get my drift."

"Finite."

*Aries pointed her wands at the vines, and sparks of glimmer white blasted forth, erasing Aries' spell as if it never even happen, releasing the child from its coils. And with that, Aries took flight. The winged beast out stretch its wings and took to heavy flaps of his wings to get airborne, and they were off.*

It was a dreary night of Novem- No, it wasn’t. The crisp air of a clear Spring evening clearly had no sense of pathetic fallacy as a weather-worn woman wove through the English forest surrounding her. She ignored the euphony of birds in favor of grabbing a tree branch to hoist herself upwards, wincing and hissing as her bandaged arm trembled under the strain. The wonder of the woods had become lost on her at this point. Sleek rabbits and drab mushrooms had become nothing but sources of food to her and trees a temporary refuge rather than an awe-inspiring sight of tracking over hundreds of years. This view was not further improved by the weight of a small Griffon strapped to her back. Upon initial inspection, it seemed odd that she was walking and climbing whilst accompanied by a creature that could fly. It would continue to seem that way until the dirt-covered bandage wrapped on its hind-quarters became apparent. The master of the skies could do little to help the woman in a lake, yet had tried and suffered for it. Killing a Kelpie without a wand was near impossible – Alexandra had definitely tried when it had attempted to drag her from the shore-line of a lake but would be dead now if not for Ouriel’s intervention. If muggles had to live like this for their entire lives, she could feel nothing but pity for them. All they could use in self-defense after an escape was whatever make-shift tools they could craft themselves or steal before escape from their captors.

As Alexandra finally managed to pull herself a decent way up the tree, she took a quick inventory of her possessions. Three daggers she had found during her escape, bandages made from torn cloth, vines that served as rope, a few torches and some tinder. All of this carried inside a bag made from a too-large shirt with straps of vine. It had taken her two tries to find vines that would not give her a rash and days before she figured out how to sleep in trees – away from the wolves and bears and who knew what else.

And that didn’t even include the minions on her tail. She grimaced.

If it were not for the nearly completely snapped wand tucked in her pocket, she would have been back months ago. Now she couldn’t even go to the Leaky Cauldron and through to Diagon Alley to get some money to buy some semblance of civilization for herself. So she trudged south east, hoping to reach London and from there gain her bearings to walk home.

'A creature is approaching...' Ouriel trailed off briefly and cocked his head to the side as he focused on the scent. It took him longer than before to react to the world around him. Even though the blood flow from his hindquarters had stemmed, the tissue itself had not knit together yet. Alexandra suspected that tooth fragments remained in the leg but knew little of how to heal without a wand.
'Werewolf.' She stiffened and turned from her make-shift assembly, wand hand sliding towards her knife as she twisted around. A woman almost as bedraggled as herself approached, clothes torn and ripped here and there. If she had encroached on the werewolf's territory, all she could hope would be that her own climbing abilities were better than the other woman's. There was no way she could run or fight. The taste of helplessness was bitter in her mouth.

Brushing blood and dirt encrusted hair from her face, she replied warily, "And I hope to stay so for a while yet." The giant grin the werewolf projected seemed out of place for such a situation. Did she intend to play with her prey? Alexandra's features hardened and her wand hand enclosed around one of her daggers. She'd had enough of such games to last her hundreds of lives.

For someone confronted by a savage looking woman in a tree - if Alexandra did say so herself - with a peculiar payload, the werewolf was oddly cheerful. It had been a long time since she had seen someone with a genuine smile that didn't come from seeing blood trickle to the floor from the flayed carcass of a human being. All she could hope was that the werewolf was not smiling at that either but at something with that caused humane amusement.

Alexandra's grey eyes flickered between the moon and the woman. "Get me to one or put me in one?"
But she was still well aware of the weight of Ouriel on her back. Her grimy mouth twisted into a grimace as she relented, "Muggle or magic one anyways?"

Alexandra hesitated. In the past, St Mungo's would definitely be her first stop in the place of healers with dubiously legal treatments but now... Well, everyone thought her missing did they not? That included the Death Eaters. And St Mungo's was a very busy place full of people she didn't know. She cocked her head to the side, making no move to go down the tree as of yet. Even as she asked her last question, Alexandra had become aware of the blood and dirt that seemed to be tattoo-ed onto her skin after having been there for so long.

"Do you like killing in a full moon?" Ouriel shifted her weight on her back, wanting to get ready for a fight that may happen but being unable to. 'It's our only way to figure out whether we can trust her or not without outright asking for her allegiance. Please...' Even as she addressed Ouriel, Alexandra tensed, ignoring the screaming tear in her leg.

And so, despite Ouriel's grumbling, Alexandra began to disassemble her half-finished tree nest. A broken tree limb fell down so while the rope twisted this way. This continued through the throbbing of her torn shoulder and ache in her legs - which she ignored - and Ouriel's hisses when she jolted him - which her gingerly apologized for. Soon, a makeshift rope ladder was formed and Alexandra began to climb down once content that the rest of the nest was scattered in a natural enough looking manner in or at the bottom of the tree.

"It was a necessary question." the world turned around her and it was all she could do to keep a hold on the ladder. The only good thing about climbing down was that she was facing the werewolf and Ouriel faced away from her.

She reached the bottom and jerked harshly on the rope ladder, gritting her teeth against the red haze rising from her wounds. "You get used to the blood loss after a while." Alexandra carefully sat down then looked more at the woman. Torn shirt and too-large boxers: unsurprising considering the moon last night. Blinking through drowsiness, Alexandra saw some vicious scars along the werewolf's right arm and left shoulder. She had not received her lycanthropy through careful deliberation that much was apparent. Such savage scars seemed out of place as part of the whimsically amused face that had looked up at her in the tree.

"Neither. I'm worse off than you and I'm not a werewolf for one." She had never before envied the condition of such a creature but from what she'd read before, the fast healing would have more than come in handy. Alexandra breathed deeply, trying to get the world to stay still around her head. It wasn't fair how it spun so. How was she supposed to stand up, let alone walk?

Ah, well so much for keeping Ouriel unnoticed. It was not likely, but she had still hoped. Alexandra made no move to unsling Ouriel from her cloth bag to his approval. Such action would probably end in their wounds opening up again.
"I wish we could have met in a... better time. My name is Alexandra." the earth finally had steadied to only throb to the beat of her heart. Tired from treking down the tree when all she had wanted to do was rest, she spoke upbrubtly.
"My friend is Ouriel."

She glanced around briefly. The scenery had changed from valleys and lakes to forests. "England I hope."