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 Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 5:05 pm
As a matter of fact, Belladonna didn't run if she didn't absolutely have to. Running tended to mess with one's hair and sometimes skirts could get caught between legs and wrinkle and no one wanted a wrinkly skirt. No, no they did not.
In any event she pointed with purpose when Calder mentioned her being unfit and shook her head about his running question. Silly Kelpie!
It took a few more deep breaths, but she was finally able to stand up straight, puffing out her own chest when Calder said her broom didn't look "super special".
"I'll have you know, its extremely special!!" With a deft hand she swiped it back, cradling it against her chest. "I got it when I was 10! I couldn't even ride it back then. But I totally can now. AND. And you're coming on a ride with me."
BAM! Didn't that just blow his mind?!
But before they could go on an afternoon ride, Belladonna had to coo over the leeches first, even if they didn't think her broom looked "super special" either. "Hello adorable leeches! May I know all of your names?" As a show of future camaraderie, Belladonna offered a hand to the things slithering about Calder, somewhat hoping one would take a bite out of her. Leeches did have to feed after all and if Belladonna could provide a free meal, it was worth the loss of a little blood!
It had been so long since she had last visited with leeches that she couldn't help but let out a few little noises of adoration for the creatures. When she had been much younger her family had visited a nearby lake and she had spent countless hours wading into the water only to dash out and attempt to befriend the little wiggling black things attached to her legs. Her sisters had never gone into the water with her, both too scared of the old superstition that witches melted in water. Silly, stupid older sisters!
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Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 12:52 pm
The leeches looked at the offered hand and slowly moved closer, to which they started to look at Calder both for the go ahead and also because they needed a bridge to get to her. The poor kelpie was a little too stunned at the moment to notice them and it wasn't till Lester nipped him that he slowly raised his hand, leaving the leeches to move from their spots and move over. A few of them just wanted a closer look, while 3 actually moved off his hand onto hers, noticing the chance in skin temperature, texture, and wondering how the blood tasted. Their wondering didn't last for long as 2 of the 3 bite, and latched on.
Fester on the other hand was looking at Calder, who was now looking at the broom in a new light. "We're going to ride on that?....in the air?" Maybe he was having second thoughts about how amazing it would be to fly. Sure, it sounded nice, but it was UP IN THE AIR! Deciding he might need a moment to process, he looked at his leeches to see if they were against it, but the seemed just fine. One of the them seemed actually excited.
"Oh, those three are Lester, Julian, Hester. This is Havil. Glorg. Em-jem. Yod. McMilligan. O'hardly." He moved his hair aside to show two more on his shoulder. "Quawn. Offle." He pointed up. "This one is Fester, he's the oldest one and the first friend I've had." He looked around, wondering if he missed any. "I know there are a few more. Oh, here is Chester. Finigan. Klark." He pointed to the ones that were hidden in his pocket. "I think that's all of them. Everyone, this is Belladonna." The little leeches wiggled, gnashed their teeth, and let out little noises in response.
Now back to looking at the broom, he breathed hard. "You're actually going to take me flying?" He looked up to see the sky and back up at her.
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 12:07 am
A delighted shriek of joy when 2 of the 3 leeches bite through her skin exploded past her lips and Belladonna couldn't help the little hop-skip her legs enacted. Sure the leeches' bite didn't hurt, or even sting a little, but she could feel it slightly and the whole idea was exciting. They would be her friends now too! Completely ignoring Calder's uncertainty, Belladonna swayed a little, as though trying to dance with the leeches on her hand.
"It is so very nice to meet all of you and I hope you're excited to come flying with us!" After a moment of soft swaying, with a free hand she poked lightly at the two drinking from her. "Ah, ah! Not too much now, alright? I have to concentrate really hard to fly. Actually, we're all going to have to, or we won't get off the ground!" With lithe fingers she plucked the two from her skin and returned them to Calder, also adding the third with its siblings. Taking a deep breath to make sure she wasn't light headed (two leeches couldn't make her light headed, but with flying on the horizon she wasn't taking any chances), she turned back to Calder.
"I'm actually going to take you flying. Now. Rules first. Keep your hands on the broom handle at ALL TIMES. Concentrate on the idea of lifting off the ground. If you get distracted for even a second, we might fall." It was probably best to mention that she still wasn't an expert at flying and only able to move heavier objects besides herself, not an entire person and their leech army! But now was the time to try it! HA HA. "Um... I think that's it... Landing might be difficult, but I can always let you off first." Probably a good idea to forget mentioning that her landings were actually ungraceful falls from the sky...
So, unable to think of anymore rules, Belladonna took a few steps away from Calder and climbed atop her broom. She turned and smiled at him, waiting for him to board as well. "It'll be fun, I promise!"
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 5:57 pm
Calder listened as the leeches listened and on the prompt to get on her broom, more than half of Calder's leeches eeped and slithered off him to scurry to the ground and head back to the dorm to hide. Nervous, he turned and reached out as if he could call them back. "Don't! Wait!.........I........." He didn't want to die! The idea of flying was nice, but thinking about falling was not his idea of fun. Looking at the ground, he tested how study it was with a hard push of his buckled shoes and frowned. It wasn't going to be a nice landing if he fell from however high up she decided to take them.
Thinking about it, he was having second thoughts.
"So I have to think about flying? But...I've never flown before? And how high are we going?" He said, stepping closer to the broom. There was no way he could say 'no' to his friend, but he didn't like to think that the way they were going to be up in the air relied in him being focused. Calder wasn't the focused time. He daydreamed about certain people and things constantly and tended to just blink out of reality all the time.
Now if he did daydreamed for a second, they could wind up hurdling to the ground at break-neck speed. He didn't like the idea of having to be scrapped off the ground or being turned into a mash. He'd seen his mother make mashed bog roots before. It always made his stomach turn. Now to be and look like that just made it worse. He had always wanted to die in a nice, pleasant manner, like from bliss while laying in a certain professor's bed. That was a nice death.
Grabbing the broom with cold, wet, palms, the kelpie awkwardly straddled the broom and swallowed. "So, just a lap around, right?" One little, tiny short lap he hoped.
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:51 pm
"Not very high at all... Maybe triple your height. Just for the feeling." Completely oblivious to his trepidation, Belladonna began a bit of a ramble. "It really isn't that hard. Just concentrate on the idea of lifting off the ground. Think 'up, up, up!' and when we get high enough you can just think of staying up or flying or forward or whatever! Hopefully I'll be strong enough to keep up aloft, but even if we fall it won't be too bad. We won't go high. I promise!"
The broom took on a bit more weight than the witch was used to as Calder climbed aboard, but it wasn't anything she couldn't (hopefully) lift. Why, her older sister Hemlock had once took her for a ride when Belladonna was only 7 and it had gone well! At least... It had, hadn't it?
Oh... Oh no, wait. That was the time Hemlock lost all control and the two girls toppled to the ground and Belladonna had twisted her ankle and almost broken her wrist and had nasty scraps all over her legs and arms. Hhhmmm. Best not to mention that little tale...
"Just a lap!" Belladonna shouted and all of sudden they were lifting into the air, slowly at first, but then faster as Belladonna got excited and they shot up much faster than she was ready to. "Oops! Now, really concentrate, ok?!" She said, them moving forward now that they were high enough dodge the tree branches. "And remember to have fun!"
That last part was, of course, the most important!
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:53 am
For a creature that was made to give rides, riding anything was difficult. Calder didn't have perfectly straight feet, or ones that bended like Belladonna's did. Sitting upon the broom, he gripped to the handle and tried to curl his feet in a way that his thighs hugged the wood. Right now, he just worried he would fall off due to gravity than being tossed off by force.
Nervous, he tried to think about flying up, but not TOO up. Just….up enough. However, Belladonna's gusto overrode his and the broom rose slowly, then sprinted higher up, leaving the kelpie scrambling for something to hold onto more than just a handle. Reaching out, he hugged the witch tightly to his chest, doing the number one thing he shouldn't do. Look down.
"Okay. Okay. Think up. Think good flying. Think staying up." He said out loud, gripping the smaller witch more. " Already his curled hooves wanted to touch the ground, but it was many feet below them now. MANY feet. It was the first time he was above a tree branch. Calder didn't climb trees. No claws or feet for that sort of thing. Height was just something horses of any type, shape, or form did. This was all knew, and he was trying to handle it as best he could – by pressing his face into Belladonna's hair. "Up.up.up.up.up.up.up." He tried to think, keeping himself from thinking about falling or dropping.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 8:08 pm
With a whoop of joy the witch and her Kelpie companion swooped down among the trees before careening back up into the air.
"Sorrieee!" Belladonna squealed (though she let out a little giggle beforehand), "I just got excited! Are you having fun?!" Oh wait, maybe Calder wasn't because he was chanting something and holding onto her rather tightly. Well that was alright! He was just making sure he didn't fall! They were up a little higher than was acceptable for most first timers, so maybe it was best to lower the broom a little... That proved a bit harder than Belladonna had thought as sinking slowly was substantially harder than darting up into the air. It took a lot of concentration and Belladonna wasn't the very best at that. She tended to ramble endlessly, only realizing she wasn't being entertaining when someone gave her a look of disgust or utter bewilderment. So this was a really bad time to suddenly drop in altitude.
"WE'RE OK!!" She shouted when they finally leveled out, though they were starting to list from side to side. "I hope you're having fun!" But that was probably a far-fetched wish. Already the Kelpie had clicked his hooves together in an attempt for leverage, instead favoring to clutch to her. Was he even looking?!
"W-we can land if you'd like..." Belladonna finally piped up, leaning back to address Calder even though it meant she leaned him back too. Hopefully he wouldn't flip out too much and go flailing into the sky. That would be really, really bad!!!
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:21 am
All the moving and sudden dropping was making him terrified beyond belief because he didn't know if he should be excited or just fearful for his life. He'd never been on a roller coaster before, and this was his first time in the air – and putting these two things together was making him grip the smaller girl as if she was his only lifeline. Any moment, he felt he would just slip off and make a kelpie pancake several hundred feet below. As he dragged her closer to him, pressing her in like a loved stuffed animal, he pressed his cheek against hers and shook his head. "No! Don't drop me." He whined, pressing his face into her hair and half of her cheek as he took a breather. The steady thudding of his heart beat against her back as he both held his breath and gasped with sudden turns and dips the broom made.
He was trying to stay calm and actually be braver than this, but he felt things were going a little too fast. Breathing deep, he turned his head and whispered in her ear. "Can….can we slow down?" If it required him thinking it, he sure the heck was thinking that now. Maybe if they slowed to a crawl or just a full stop and hovered a while, he would be okay enough to try enjoying the ride.
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:53 pm
Being held this tight was beginning to wear on the witch and she shifted uncomfortable in Calder's grasp, but didn't really do anything to dislodge him. At one point his cheek pressed to her's and though she was starting to fret over his fear, she couldn't help but laugh. Were most people this afraid of heights? Maybe only the ones who couldn't fly themselves? Perhaps this was why Belladonna seemed to flock to people with wings, because she knew they had a somewhat similar kinship?
"Yeah, we can slow down." She finally announced, both hands gripping the broom a little tighter as with a sickeningly slow time frame they reduced their speed until they were just floating in the air, not moving forward and instead only hovering and rocking slightly, as though they were on the ocean. "Is that better?" Belladonna asked, not lessening her hold as staying still was probably the hardest thing besides landing. "Don't look down, but at least look around! Its really nice up here with the breeze and all the trees." A quick inhale provided a nice scent of autumn wind and something dead. Perfect! "You can see the lake from here and everything!"
In fact, if they were able to go a bit higher they would be able to see the dorms and classrooms too, but that might be pushing it. Plus Belladonna wasn't entirely sure of the school's flying policy, or if they even had one! She hadn't thought about it until just now, but what if Amityville was anti-flying!? What if they had a secret team of air-control gnomes that watched students take to the skies only to shoot them down mercilessly?! How terrible!!
But... There were so many students with wings, it seemed impossible... And they hadn't been shot down yet, so maybe there wasn't some crazy conspiracy against those that could fly...
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Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:30 pm
The kepie had his face firmly pressed in the smaller witches hair, using her plush, red curls to hide until the crazy ride slowed down. It did, aside from a wary sort of rocking, and once she assured him they were slowed down, he breathed out. His grip hadn't loosened, before he slowly pulled his head away enough to open one eye and look around. It was dark and above, past rolling Fall clouds were moving overhead in a dim day, as Halloweentown was rarely ever sunny, and the trees just below were rusting to the autumn wind. There was a spice smell of colored, dead leaves, and a pungent scent of something that had lost past its expiration and reeked so much that it traveled this high up.
As he peered about, his grip went more to a gentle hug for security than the death-grip for life that it had been before. The rest of his head peeked out, still close by the ghoul's face, but slowly rising up as Calder's ears perked. He looked about, looking out to spot the lake, and looking about the sky. "……I can see the lake." He said, a little in awe. He had never seen a body of water this high up before. It was beautiful!
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:10 pm
Now that Calder seemed to be enjoying his flight a little bit more Belladonna finally did lean back into him, as though trying to nudge him with shoulder in a playful manner although he was already plastered to her. Oh well, it was meant well! A slow and mischievous grin had formed on her lips, but she quickly turned into something more genuine and decided it was bet not to randomly nosedive to give Calder a taste of real flying. This hanging in the air thing was just baby-stuff, but Belladonna had to take baby-steps when she had a first time flier on her broom. It wasn't polite to scare the kelpie senseless!
"Isn't it pretty?" She cooed, watching the gray water ripple softly in the breeze. "You should see it at night under a full moon though! Its gorgeous then!" Perhaps Calder would be interested in going riding sometime at night with her? She hadn't been riding at night since coming to Amityville simply because she didn't know the rules, but maybe she should! It would be something nice to do just for herself... The next go-around she could talk Calder along. "So! You ready to actually fly or do you want to land now? We can take that lap. I promise I'll go slow!" She really would go slow! He wasn't all that heavy (though she was sure those hooves would have weighed him down, even though she couldn't really figure out the logic of that) and this was much easier than she had anticipated!
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:41 am
The wind was cool, carrying the scent of water and the soft shampoo of Belladonna's hair. He leaned in, closing his eyes a moment, before opening them. The little baby steps the witch was taking gave him time to adjust and to enjoy the beginning pleasures of flying. The heights thing – not so much. He was a ground creature and underwater at that. The air was no-kelpie territory and he was wary about it from being new and because of instincts. Horses didn't climb trees or rock climb. They stayed by rivers and pastures. He was, by culture and blood, a grounded creature. He had to wonder if he was one of the first kelpies to ever fly.
As much as his heart was still beating out of his chest, he didn't want to give up just yet. Calder liked trying out new things. He often just jumped into them to give them a shot. This was no exception. Hesitantly, he nodded. "We…can take a lap. I don't want to go down just yet. I've never flown before or……been higher than tree branch."
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:54 am
"Really?!" The witch asked, craning her neck to show Calder just how surprised she was to hear he'd never been higher than a tree branch. "You never climbed trees as a kid?" She paused for a moment, looking down at his feet for a brief second before letting the surprise drop from her face. "I suppose you wouldn't with hooves... I just it makes climbing things kind of hard..." Her childhood had been filled with climbing trees and chasing birds and using her feet. In fact, she had spent most of her childhood barefoot simply because it was easier to climb or run with. She only wore shoes now because she liked how they completed an outfit. (Nothing looked worse than a pretty dress and bare feet! Goodness!)
"A lap it is then!" Belladonna commanded, turning back around and wiggling a little before squinting her eyes into a more concentrated look. The two jerked forward for a moment before they finally settled into a very slow, very calm motion of moving forward. Belladonna grew quiet as she concentrated, trying to keep them from rocking as well as running into anything and still keeping them from rocketing forward. This was turning out to be harder than she thought for every so often they would lurch forward before falling back into the slow movement. "Sorry about the jumpiness..." The witch mumbled, her shoulders hunched forward. "This is just hard!"
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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:24 am
The jumpiness bothered him and he held a little firmer than when he had relaxed, but he tried to be calm as best he could. As she clearly noticed, hooves did not get used for climbing. "My kind doesn't climb. I could never get up a tree even if I tried. Even if I pulled myself up with my arms, my feet would go on the branch and just slip off. We're not made for heights. We're made for the land and water." Which he liked, but this was something new. "I think I'm one of the only kelpies that have been up in the air." He said with a smile, looking at Belladonna who had allowed him to do this. Still, it was scary as all Jack. Heights were not his friend.
When she seemed to be straining, he let go a little so she didn't feel so suffocated, and breathed deep. She said thinking about flying helped, and he wanted to help if it was hard. Thinking, eh tried to think of the idea of flying, and keeping up in the air, and moving forward, just to give her a little boost. He hoped it was a little boost. "You're really good at flying. Then again, this is my first time. At least we're not dead." Yet.
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