Peace Shattered?

Jayden ran down to the CoMC paddock anticipating that he would be alone there. Without any students to bother him and hopefully without the Professor being there as well. He figured the Professor had a life, so he must have left if only for a few minutes to do something for himself. He glanced down at his feet, to see a particularly happy Athena running alongside him. Athena had always been a happy and fast cat, so it didn't amaze him that she was running so quickly along with him. "Why do you like coming down here so much?" a small, hissing sort of voice came from something on his shoulder. It was his little snake, Ritual that was talking to him.

"I dunno Ritual. Why do you think I like it here?" he asked his snake sarcastically. Ritual was well aware that he liked taking care if animals and he liked the CoMC paddock because of the creatures there. So it was a dumb question that the small snake asked all the time. Ritual stared at Jayden and sighed. "I was only asking, geez." the snake said. Jayden smiled and chuckled.

"Why didn't you go see Sora today?" the white cat asked him. "Oh I'll go see her later. She knows I spend my time here on Sundays." he answered the cat. Athena shrugged and Meow softly. Jayden looked around the paddock and grinned happily when he saw no one else was there, not even the Professor. "Yes." he said cheerfully, as he entered the paddock. Athena's tail flicked from side to side happily as she trotted in alongside her master.

There was a tree that grew up in the middle of the Care of Magical Creatures paddock. Wally knew she could get in trouble for sneaking in and letting out the newts, but every once in a while, she did. She would grab the jar that held the newts and climb up the tree before perching in a nice little branch. She would wait for the birds to settle in the tree before she let out the newts and lay back, letting them crawl everywhere- including over her.

Darwin did not like the newts. Her chameleon did not like people or other creatures, typically. So she let him crawl along on his own branch, camouflaging himself and pushing newts out of the tree that got too close to him. Wally just baked in the sun, dressed casually so she could jump down and chase down anything that caught her eye. She was planning a trip into the forest to gather some stuff for Spice, but for now, she liked the warmth.

Suddenly, she heard a voice. She turned her head to see an approaching figure. She sighed but settled back, closing her eyes against the bright sun. She could ignore them, they would lose interest, and she could take a nap in the tree. But the boy continued to talk to… his imaginary friends or something and he entered the paddock. She sighed and after awhile, could not take it. She sat up in the tree, a few newts falling off of her. “Who are you talking to?” she demanded.

There was a voice that made him jump and he stopped immediately. He lookes up at a tree and saw a younger girl sitting in it. He sighed and placed a hand on his chest. "Gosh! You scared me!" he told the girl. He closed his eyes and ran a hand threw his hair. "Do you know her?" Athena asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked up at the girl curiously. "No, well not really. She's a Ravenclaw, that's all I know." he said, looking down at the white cat.

At the girl's question, Jayden looked back up at her. "Uh... No one." he said. That wouldn't work, he just spoke to his cat in front of her. "Just tell her!" a rather irritated Ritual hissed at him and Jayden sighed. "Fine!" he said to his shoulder, where the snake was. "I was talking to my pets, okay?" he told the girl. She would probably think he was weird, everyone usually did when they found out he could speak to animals.

They always said it was a weird ability that never helped anyone. Though it could be true that it didn't help anyonr, Jayden didn't believe that it was a weird ability. He liked being able to speak to his pets, they made things less boring for him. If he needed someone to talk to, he didn't have to go around and find someone, they would always be there right next to him. "What are you doing here?" he asked the girl as he looked back up at her.

The boy was obviously startled by the abrupt way she had addressed him, but Wally had a way of sort of sneaking up on people in that way. She was rather oblivious when it came to the social norm and basic etiquette with people, so she often found herself making the wrong decision or making some sort of mistake that labeled her a misfit. Ah well. She didn't apologize. Just blinked at him like an owl.

He spoke again, telling someone that she was a Ravenclaw. "There you go," she pointed out. "I'm right here. No need to use third person." Then again, that was the way her family talked about her. How she wanted to move away with her father and go back to Australia. She felt as though that would fix everything. and no more having to deal with her mother and siblings.

He tried to pass it off, but he was blushing and looking embarrassed. Wally watched him intently, observing him like a predator might observe a rodent that was soon to become dinner. Finally he admitted he was speaking to his pets. "That's stupid," she said. "I talk to my pet, but not like he's talking back to me." He asked what she was doing and she laid back in the tree, uninterested in him. "Sitting in a tree. Duh."

Jayden sighed and shook his head. "I know you're there. But I wasn't talking to you." he said. He tried to make it sound non-offensive, but there really wasn't any way to make that sound any better. Ritual hissed softly as she stared up at the girl. "I don't like her." she immedately said. Jayden looked at his shoulder and chuckled. "You don't have to Ritual. Can't like everyone." he told the snake.

Athena climbed onto her master's other shoulder and she glared at the girl. Jayden looked at the girl and sighed. "Just because you can't do it, doesn't mean it's stupid." he said. "Some people can speak to their pets. I'm one of those people." he told her. Athena rubbed her head on Jayden's cheek and he smiled. "It's actually quite fun to talk to them. You can learn more things about them that way." he smiled at her.

"Fun." he said sarcastically as she answered his question. "By the way, I'm Jayden Volkov. What's your name?" he asked her. Might as well be nice to her, they were housemates after all.

She rolled her eyes at his response. She was the only human around, so his response was invalid in her opinion. There was no one else for him to rationally talk to, so the logical jump would be that he was either speaking to her, or being abnormal. She blinked at him, as though asking him if he was really as stupid as he sounded. Instead, she said, "And it's rude to talk about people in front of their faces."

Again, he spoke to his pet as though it had spoken to him. She pulled a face and said, "And again. People are going to think you're mad if you keep raving on like that." It was matter-of-fact. She was starting to think he was either base, ignorant, delirious, or a mix of all of the above. And those in the castle who would jump to much simpler conclusions were sure to have less mercy.

She sat up as he explained why he was speaking to the creatures. His explanation made her raise her eyebrow. "Oh," she said. She stared at him for a moment. "So... you are weird. That's not a learned ability, so that means your genes are abnormal." Again, it was not to be mean- it was the simple statement of a true, indisputable fact. He asked her name and she settled back, a newt leaping off a branch and onto her shoe. She reached down to poke its nose before saying, "Wally."

Jayden shrugged at her comment. He couldn't help it. Even if she didn't understand what his pets said, he did and he had to answer them. Even if it seemed like he was mad, besides like she said it way rude to speak about someone in front of their faces, it was rude to ignore someone. He never ignored his pets and he wouldn't start now because she thought he was weird.

Again he shrugged. "I don't care what people think of me. I like speaking to my pets." he told her. "They can call me whatever they want, it doesn't bother me." he'd been called weird and a freak before, along with other more unpleasant names. But he learned to block them out whenever they called him something like that. "She's mean." Athena stated, though to the girl it would sound like a normal meow. Jayden nodded and chuckled at Athena's comment.

It really didn't bother him that she had just called him weird. It was like being called weird had become a normal thing in his everyday life, so he didn't care. "Guess I am. But I'm glad I got this ability." he said. "Being normal is boring. Being weird is fun." he smiled and scratched Athena's ear. The kitten began to purr and Ritual curled up on his shoulder. The small snake had already fallen asleep.

Wally was beginning to get a little interested in this boy. She enjoyed animals, and she would be interested to know what they said. She sat up and adjusted her shit, before reaching up and tightening her braids, pulling her roots on her head. She was unabashed by the pain. "So, you can talk to any animal? Like these newts?" she said, waving her arms around at the newts that scampered all up and down the tree and over her. She indicated her chameleon. "Even Darwin?"

(sorry, muse fail)

Jayden nodded and smiled. Athena meowed softly at Wally and her purring grew louder. "Yeah, I can. But it depends on if they have enough intelligence to be interested. Some animals aren't smart enough, so they quickly lose interest." he explained. "I'm sure these Newts are smart enough for me to talk to them though." he said.

He looked at her chameleon and smiled. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would be able to talk to him." he smiled at her. Ritual had lifted her head up after not being able to fall asleep for long and she stared at the chameleon. She barely moved as she looked at him and wouldn't look away. Jayden looked at Ritual and blinked. She wasn't saying anything and he was wondering what she could be thinking.

Wally nodded at his words, listening, her mind processing the information thoroughly and filing it in an efficient fashion. Wally's mind was the picture of efficient- streamline intelligence unhindered by outside influences like affection and compromising emotions. She turned and reached up, gingerly picking up Darwin and setting him on her lap for better observation of the phenomenon.

She looked up to ask the boy to demonstrate his skills with her chameleon companion when she noticed the boy's little pet snake was staring intently at Darwin. Wally blinked and stared at the snake, as though trying to discern the meaning behind the snake's icy stare on her chameleon. "Why is it staring at Darwin?" she asked the boy, still staring at the snake. "Make it stop."