Tiny Rescue [OPEN]

[Dorian Krueger]

Dorian has a tenuous relationship with the word "forbidden". The name of the forest was likely the only reason he hadn't explored it further, but it hadn't kept him out entirely. What was the harm? He always figured as long as he could see the light through the trees he would be able to tell which way the castle was, and if he encountered anything that was trying to murder him he could just break for the treeline. So far this close to the grounds, the ominous Forbidden Forest had proven to be fairly tame. One day he'd round up a group of friends and go deeper in. Today was not that day.

Today, he'd been poking around along the edge of the forest when he'd heard something. Somethings. Several tiny somethings. For the past 15 minutes or so he'd been turning in circles, stepping lightly and trying to pinpoint the source of the tiny peeps he kept hearing. They were somewhere close. If it wasn't for the closeness of the trees he wouldn't be having so much trouble picking out the direction...

There it was again.

Dori took a few careful steps. He has to be practically on top of them. "Psswsswswssssss. Where are youuu?" The squeaks got louder in response. Finally. He carefully got down onto his knees and began searching through the underbrush. They had to be... right...

Here. Parting the base of a dense shrub he finally saw them. Kittens. Four tiny, wriggly, damp-from-the-rain kittens yelling for mama. The strangled gleeful squeal that came out of him was barely recognizable as human. "Oooh goodness look at ye! Yer only just wee new bairns! Eyes closed an aw! Wheres yer maw eh?" Dropping to his stomach her wriggled in as close as he could manage. "Where is she? Did she leave and git munched by trolls or some bonkers magic 'hing, eh?"

[Elwyn Wann]

Elwyn had been looking for a unicorn. She hadn't found one, unfortunately, but she had spent the better part of ten minutes looking and was had given up and abandoned the project. Having the keen since of direction she did, she had taken a shortcut to get back out of the Forest. That's what she had been doing to the last three hours. It was funny how shortcuts always seemed to take longer for her.

She was ready to become a wild mountain woman and live in the forest forever, when she spotted a dead body. Who just left a dead body out in the open like that? It was a dumb move on anyone's part. When the body moved, Elwyn's eyes widened. She didn't know that the Forest had zombies! What had see been missing?

Slowly approaching the zombie, she was shocked to find four little fur balls in it's clutches. They were mewing something big time. "Stop right there," she addressed the zombie. She had left her wand in her room, but had found a discarded bottle along her travails, so she pointed that at him. "Unhand those kittens you fowl feen!"

[Dorian Krueger]

Dori quickly became so focused on the tiny lives in front of him - whether he should move them, whether any of them looked sick and so one and so forth - that he didn't even hear another person approaching. He wriggle himself backwards a few inches to give himself room to turn enough to see who was speaking to him. His first instinct was that he'd been caught where he shouldn't be, but when he got a look at the girl he was sure she was a student - one in his year, at that - which meant they were also where she shouldn't be.

His second instinct was: "...wot? Wot are ye on about?" He had tiny babies to take care of and here was this girl waving some sort of bottle at him. He didn't wait for an answer before turning his attention back to the babies, shooing away some flies that were attempting to land on them. His sister did some rescue work sometimes and he knew you shouldn't move nursing babies in case mom came back from hunting, but his gut was telling him she'd been gone too long.

[Elwyn Wann]

Elwyn gasped and covered her mouth with her free had as the recognized the zombie. He was one of her class mates! How dare the zombie population try to invade the school! This stopped right there. "Listen here, man-eater. I have no idea what you're saying in your zombie language, but you can't eat those kittens." Oh, if only she had her wand on her!

The blonde patted herself down in case she had only thought she had left her wand behind. It wasn't in her hair, bra, or skirt, and she was bare footed, so there were no boots to hide it it. That was unfortunate. Maybe there was something near by she could use to defeat him and save the kittens. She hadn't even known zombies liked to eat kittens! She would have to interview him, so she would be more prepared for the rest of the invasion.

[Dorian Krueger]

"Zombie lang-" Dori sputtered a bit trying to work out what the girl was even talking about. Eat the kittens? Was she delusional? He couldn't imagine anything about him looked particularly zombie like, beyond that the front of his clothes we a bit muddy from being sown on the damp ground. "Yer aff yer nut ye are." And then slower, more annunciated and a little more british sounding since she seemed to be having trouble understanding him: "Are - you - okayy? Have - you - hit - your - head?? I - am - not - a - zombie - you - loony." He sighed and went back to the kittens.

They were damp and cold, regardless of anything else, and if he did nothing else for them they could use some warming up. With no towel on hand he did the only thing he could think of; sitting up, he pulled his teeshirt off over his head, and spread it out on his lap before reaching into the bush to scoop up the little ones and bundle them up in the fabric.

[Morrigan Delaney]

Morrigan had once again found herself wandering around in a fit of dramatic tension. It had lead her soon to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It would be terribly Romantic, she thought, to be murdered or carried away by some sort of draugr or other deranged creature. She was missing home once again, she could tell by her thoughts of draugr. Who would romanticize those? She was getting desperate.

Soon enough though, she heard something curious. A familiar voice with a familiar accent. As she approached and turned the corner, she saw her housemate Dori wrapping...something in a teeshirt, while the a blonde girl she vaguely knew was a Ravenclaw babbling something at him.

Then she heard it.

The teensiest.

The tiniest.

The most adorable-est. mews.

"Oh my gods!!" she exclaimed loudly, throwing her hands up. "Dori! Kittens?!" she could barely get the words out, her glee was so badly contained. She burst past the blonde girl and leaned down to where Dori had wrapped the little ones up in a shirt. "Did you find them out here? How little are they? How many are there? Are they hurt? Do they need help?" She could feel herself babbling, but was unable to stop. There were kittens after all!

[Elwyn Wann]

Elwyn tried to grab the girl the suddenly burst past her, but I need up on the student's back instead. "Get away from him, or he'll eat you!" Why didn't she understand? You couldn't just charge a zombie like that! You had to approach them slow-like. Get their trust. Then you set them on fire.

The blonde vaguely recognized the brunette she was trying to save, but couldn't remember her name. "He isn't your friend anymore, Freckels. The zombies have made him one of their o--oph!" Elwyn slipped and landed on her rump. That often hasppened to her, for some reason. But the force of the impact left her slightly breathless.

They would all be eaten now. They would be a tribe of zombies with little zombie kittens. She would have to eat brains! "But... I don't like the taste of brains."

[Dorian Krueger]

"Aye! We'ens!" Dori's face lit up when Morrigan appeared and rushed over, and then dropped again when he registered the blonde's words. He frowned at his friend. "Do ye know her? Is she okay? Has she fergotten her medication?" He flinched sypathetically a bit when the girl fell but made no move to assist - even without infant kittens in his lap he would've been wary of helping her up lest she try to whack him.

He shook his head at the situation and turned his attention to Morrigan again, opening the shirt-bundle enough for her to see. "Four, about a week old ah think. They were tucked in that bush. They could use a wash and then a real towel. Mom could come back, but... ah dunno, dunnae feel like it. They're too dirty and they don have those fat milkie bellies like kitten who fed recently. Dae ye think the hospital wing has formula? Or the magical creatures professor?"

[Morrigan Delaney]

Morrigan stared blankly at the girl. She had plenty of weird people in her own family, but nothing even vaguely like this poor girl. Perhaps she was supposed to have some sort of aide she had slipped away from? Morrigan wanted to help her, but wasn't sure that might make things worse.

Turning back to Dori and the kittens, she started cooing once more.

"Oh those poor babies! I'm sure Mom could help us find some sort of formula.... She might be a bit annoyed, but she loves baby animals. Don't let the serious exterior fool you," she nodded. "She used to help out on Aunt Thorunn's farm all the time, so she has some experience. We could take them to her office!"

Of course, it might be difficult to smuggle the kittens past everyone else it took to get her mother, but Morrigan wasn't really thinking of that. What she was thinking of was begging Dori and her mother to let her keep one of the kittens. She wasn't rooming with Cana after all! What could go wrong!

"If nothing else, we should get them inside from the cold to get them warmed up! A tee-shirt isn't much at all, and you'll probably start to catch cold too."

She turned to the blonde girl with concern in her voice.

"Are you okay? Do you want to come with us to see my mom? She can help you maybe?" Jetta was no doctor but she went through some weird phases herself, Morrigan knew. Maybe she could be of help with this girl?

[Elwyn Wann]

Elwyn eyed the zombie-boy, he hadn't tried to eat them yet in a fit of ravenous hunger. Maybe he was a good zombie. She felt bad. She was using unjust zombie stereotypes and a he wanted to do was help the poor kitties! He had even tried to speak a human language for her. She wasn't being a very good host.

Granted, she never thought she would be hosting a party in the middle of the Forest. And if she had thought that, she wouldn't have thought her guests would include a zombie, kittens, and a girl with freckles. What a strange mix! And she hasn't even brought snacks.

Shifting onto her knees, Elwyn shuffled forward before pulling her shirt over her head. It was a knitted, 3/4 sleeve, off the shoulder jumper. She loved it so much that she owned it in face colors. This one was a dark green. "Here," she said, stealing up her nerves to hand it to Zombie-boy, "it can be another layer to keep them warm until we can get them to Freckles' mum."

She was pretty sure by now that the only thing that would eat the kittens was some wild animal.