Welcome to Gaia! ::

This school was absolutely huge and Hattie had to explore every inch of it! She'd been wandering around this weekend instead of focusing on homework and so far she'd only tripped a couple times. This hallway had a lot of those moving paintings and as she'd discovered, some of them even talked! That was a little shocking at first but she had quickly discovered that some of them had important information to share. After a pretty interesting conversation with a particularly ornery knight, Hattie had decided to climb this tower and see what was at the top. Walking to the base of a stairwell, the clumsy Scot looked up the stairwell and nodded. "Right, ah kin manage this! They’re just stairs, after aw." Nodding again, she started climbing the stairs, but just to be safe, she was holding onto the handrail alongside the stairs. Hattie had gotten about halfway up the stairs and could see the next landing when her foot slipped off the step. She fell forward and landed hard on the step. "Oof!" she exclaimed, but that wasn't the end of her troubles. Hattie started to slide back down the steps, tumbling as she rolled down the stairs. "Ouch! Oof! Yeouch!" Hattie yelped as she rolled down the stairs, landing on her butt as she rolled all the back down the stairs. "Oof, that wis nae fun. Och, ma bum!" She was sitting on the floor, rubbing her head, then her elbow, her side... Oof, everywhere hurt... At least no one had seen her roll down the stairs, right?

Oh, a riddy! Someone had seen her fall down the stairs. Hattie got a little red in the cheeks, especially when she saw that it was someone from her grade that had seen her fall. They wouldn't forget easily... like if it was a seventh year, at least they'd graduate at the end of the year. But nope, it was someone from her year who'd definitely remember for a long while. At least they were being nice about it and not laughing... "Aye, I'm alright. I've takin' a few spills doon the stairs in ma day. At least it wis only one flight o' stairs." Hattie got to her feet and rubbed her bum, which was hurting now. She'd definitely have some bruises after this. At least she didn't break her glasses this time. After adjusting her hat, Hattie answered the other question. "Aye, that’s me. Though only ma maw calls me Harriet, an’ only when I’m in the deep end. A' the rest just call me Hattie. Ah lad, ma erse is sore. An’ ma elbow. An’ ma heid." After moving her arm around a few times, she confirmed nothing was broken at least. She nodded to the girl who had joined her. "Yer Jaslene, gie?" she asked, trying to remember the girl's name from Sorting... and class...

When the girl said they wouldn't have to amputate, Hattie giggled a little and tipped her head to the side. Then she said that she went by Jazz and that Jaslene was her government name. Hattie nodded, logging that into her memory. She suggested finding the hospital wing which made Hattie shake her head. "Och that's tis nae that important. Nothing's goosed, juist a few bruises. A've bin hurt a lot worse than this. Wance ah fell aff th' dock 'n' broke mah shank in twa places. That wis fin though. Ah git tae swim tae mah dad's boat 'n' then git fished oot wi' a net. Ah wis seven, ah think." Hattie nodded, remembering that time vividly. She'd also had to spend the night in the clinic because they wanted to make sure she hadn't had internal injuries. Of course she hadn't, then she got a cool cast for her leg and all ten kids in her class signed it. "Anyway, Jazzy, wantae see whit's at th' tap o' th' tower? ah cuid hae sworn ah heard an owl hooting fae whaur ah fell doon." The preteen pointed up the stairs, ready to try and conquer them again. If she had someone with her, the chances of her falling down went down some... though the chances of her accidentally knocking down her new friend went up significantly.

It was nice that Jazzy seemed concerned about Hattie's wellbeing, but the preteen wasn't too worried about it. Since she could tell nothing was broken, it wasn't a big concern of hers. "Och, a'm bonny guid at telling whin something's wrong. A've goosed ferr a few bones in mah lee. C'mon let's gang!" Jazzy had offered Hattie her hand and the girl accepted. If she was holding someone else's hand, maybe she'd be less likely to fall, at least that's what she hoped. However, it was also a possibility that she'd pull Jazzy down with her and the two of them would tumble down the stairs. But Hattie hoped it was the first option though. "Ah wonder how come thay wid hae sae mony owls 'ere. Mibbie thay hae a moose kinch?" Since Hattie had received her letter via the Governess' delivery and not an owl, she didn't know that the magical world delivered mail via owls. Hattie hadn't paid too much attention to the lady after finding out she was a witch. The girl had drifted off into her own world imagining the wonders she was about to learn about. In her mind, the only reason they'd need a lot of owls is if they had a mouse problem, but then everyone had cats and wouldn't they hunt the mice?

Had Jazzy never heard of mice before? She seemed... confused by the word, so maybe she hadn't. But she said that the owls were used to deliver the mail, and that was why they had so many. Hattie guessed that made sense, since she did see them sometimes at their morning meal. She was usually running late because she liked to sleep in now that she wasn't working on a fisherman's schedule anymore. But Hattie was still concerned that Jazzy didn't know what a mouse was. "A moose, lik' th' wee furry guys wi' th' tails 'n' th' wallies?" As she spoke the last words, she pantomimed big teeth in front of her face. Once a mouse had gotten into their kitchen and eaten through an entire pound of rice. A hooting drew Hattie's attention and she looked up the stairs, realizing they were at the exact spot where she'd fallen last time. Then the girl blinked and an idea popped into her head. "Owls delivering th' mail is kind o' pure weird, isnae it? Lik', likelie th' wirst wey tae deliver it. Dinnae thay git sleepy?" How could owls deliver the mail all over the country? Did owls carry mail internationally?

Jazzy explained that she had thought Hattie was talking about mooses and mimed the antlers, instead of mice, which made her laugh. How could Jazzy have made that mistake? "Och ye though ah meant an elk, that's funny!" she exclaimed, laughing again. Well, Hattie was glad she didn't have to explain what mice were to her friend... that would have been a weird conversation. Then Jazzy commented that she was new to magic and wasn't sure if owl were used for long distances, but that she was sure there was a book about them. She also commented that magic folk traveled by fireplace? Like Santa Claus? "Hauld yer horses fowk kin travel by fireplace? Mibbie ah did skelp mah heid bonny solid. Urr ye pure saying that fowk kin travel by fireplace? Howfur does that even wirk?" Maybe she did really need to take some time to do some research on magical folk because she didn't know anything apparently! Ugh, that meant reading though. That was literally one of Hattie's least favorite things to do! Sitting still, reading a book... trying to focus on that instead of being up and moving. That was terrible! "Ugh, that means ah hae tae read, doesn't it?" she exclaimed disgustedly.