Ching ching...ching ching sounded the bell as the Skytherin Alumni Waked into the shop. He was wearing his old school robes mostly so Mr. O'dell would recogize him as a student and he had yet to get clothes for himself.
He passes cages aquariums filled with appropriate animals alll looking content, and as happy as they could be in a shop.
On his shoulder was a big black raven name Belasko. He was the reason he was here. He had somethings to ask his old CoMC teacher about his new companion. He walked to the counter and hoped she was there.
Unfortunately, there was no such person as Mr. O'dell in this part of the world. There was only Sylph. She was an O'Dell, of course, but certainly not a mister - nothing about her five foot ten inch frame said mister.
Ms. O'Dell wandered out from the back of the shop, drying her hands on an old dishcloth as she did so. Her forearms were bare and her hair was a mess - she'd obviously been mucking out one or other of the animals in her care. Seeing Malachy, she shot him a quick grin, noticing with some surprise that he was still wearing his school robes despite having graduated.
"Alright Malachy?" she beamed. "What can I do for you today?"
So Slyph can see type-os now? Well fine, then he'll just have to be more careful.
Malachy raised his arm an let the back bird hop to his wrist. "Well Mrs. O'dell. This raven is my new familiar, and I was thinking of using him like delivery owl. Are there any enchantments I should consider?" He asked as he lowered his his arm an let the bird hop to the counter and walk around in front of his former teacher..
"...or for that matter, any useful enchantments I might place on this bird."
OOC: Sylph cannot, but that hardly matters, seeing as I am the narrator
Sylph's eyes flashed slightly when he mistakenly called her Mrs O'Dell but she let it slide. A simple enough mistake, perhaps. And certainly nothing to a the fact that a mere boy was proclaiming brashly that he had acquired a new familiar. When the hell had he had one before? True familiars were rare things; wizards capable of communicating with animals were one in a million, and animals suited to such communication virtually non-existent. Furthermore, hearing a teenager so offhandedly boast about this bizarre ability was more than a little surprising.
"Handsome critter," Sylph murmured as she stroked the ebony bird as he hopped about on the counter, trying to disguise her confusion. "But, uh, no, not really," she answered. "Enchantments aren't generally used on post owls - not unless they're being used to send sensitive documents, anyway," she added, eying the ex-Slytherin with a little scepticism.
Well, malachy was no ordinary Wizard and the raven was more than above average. The Ravn cawed happilly as the witch stroked its feathers. The raven was far more than met the eye ravens where naturally connected to death. and Mala had a friend on the other side. But mal was not aware of what the raven had to hide, nor was he aware that Fimiliar and wizards that could control them where rare.
"Well Miss O'Dell, is there any advice you would like give, about this rather handsome bird? The raven had found a spider, web in the corner of the desk and was intent on finding and then eating the spider that lived there. The spider, Who was hiding itself away from the bird, seemed perfectly safe in a crack in the counter.
OOC: Dude, just a tip; check your spelling and grammar before you hit reply - took me a couple of reads to figure out exactly what was supposed to be going on in that post.
Glad to be distracted for a moment, Sylph watched the corvid as he pecked away at her counter, apparently unconcerned by his vandalism.
“I wouldn’t have thought you would have needed my advice, seeing as how he’s your, uh, familiar,” she answered, trying not to take her eyes off the bird. The thought that people could share mental links with ordinary animals still made her somewhat uneasy; somehow, it just didn’t seem right. Sylph had an affinity for creatures of all shapes and sizes, but being able to hear their thoughts was just plain weird. That was, if animals actually had coherent thoughts, which she doubted very much. Emotions, yes, but not logical inner monologues. How did the kid know that this wasn’t some animagus pretending to be an actual raven? There was a spell, of course, to reveal such things, but Sylph didn’t fancy trying it out just now. Malachy would probably take great offence, and it didn’t do to offend someone in her shop - at least not before they had paid for something.
“Regular ravens are very smart,” she continued, still concentrating on the deep scores the bird’s beak was making in her desk. “They need lots of stimulus, or they tend to self harm – pulling out their feathers, stuff like that. Normally I tell people to keep them active, to let them out a lot, and not to get them unless they’re in for the long haul – common ravens can live for anything up to about forty years. You’ve got to keep their food varied, too,” she found herself continuing, getting into her stride as she entered rather more familiar (!) territory. “Bits of meat are good, but throw in some live prey from time to time, as well as with some nuts and fruit and stuff. But yeah…” she trailed off, finally bringing her shockingly electric gaze to meet the ex-Slytherin’s face.
“Hasn’t he, y’know…,” she asked hesitantly. “Told you all this?”
No, he hasn't actually He came to me a few days ago. Since then I've sort of had him do as he pleases. Morgan Pandragon the current Ravenclaw prefect has helped a little, but your right about keeping his food varied but I don't know about live prey..." Malachy though for a moment then continued, "Raven's are omnivorous but they are scavengers. I mean I have no squeamish problems with seeing one animal prey on an other, but as far as I knew ravens ate things that generally can't fight back." Malachy said as he watch the Raven.
The Raven didn't want to peck through the wood, what was he a wood pecker. He looked around and found an ink bottle. The raven attacked the bottle and in doing so both opened and spilled the black liquid on the table. the ink leaked into the crack and the spider raced out to escape the cascade of of think black liquid. The raven had been wait for that and pecked up the spider. Happy as ever to have out smarted the arachnid.
Last Edit: Aug 11, 2009 11:59:58 GMT -5 by Malachy
Sylph nodded somewhat ruefully when Malachy mentioned Morgan, an I-should-have-known smile tugging at her mouth. Morgan had once come into Chang’s looking for a new pet and had selected a colour changing rabbit claiming it could talk. At the time Sylph had put it down to weirdness on Morgan’s part. Now, however, it was clear that the Ravenclaw girl was also one of these rare people who could have familiars. Sylph knew that she should have guessed this earlier, what with the menagerie that followed Morgan around. Ah well, live and learn.
“They’ll take on anything they think they can manage,” she replied conversationally, referring of course to ravens. “I’ve seen them driving their beaks into the ground looking to pull up moles to eat. Young chicks they take too, but I had something less cute and fluffy in mind. Insects and worms do nicely, especially if you make them work for it – making them use sticks and whatnot to get them out,” she added by way of explanation. “They’re good at using tools – ah.” The ink had just been spilled on the counter.
“There, that’s exactly what I mean,” she said, quirking an eyebrow at the now smug bird. With a quick wave of her wand the ink was cleaned up, magically returned to its rightful place, but it was too late for the unfortunate spider. “Bright things, ravens, you gotta keep them occupied.”
He watched, with his former teacher, as Belakso spilled the Ink and got the spider. “… or an Ink bottle will be the least of my problems.” He added to her last comment. “I know it’s probably better to find something wild for the bird, but to you have any live bait, for the more carnivorous animals?” He asked politely.
As he waited for Sylph’s answer he turned to Belakso, he couldn’t help but be proud of the smug black bird. He scratched the raven on the head and gave but a hand in on witch to perch and lifted the raven back to his shoulder
"Sure I do," Sylph answered. "This is a pet shop, you know. I've got grubs and crickets by the crate load. If you want something bigger and trickier though I'm sure I can rustle up a few vanishing scarab beetles. Oh, and I forgot to mention," she added. "Ravens absolutely adore dried berries. I don't stock them, unfortunately, but trust me - they'll do anything for a couple of those things."
"So," she went on, glad be finally be getting a sale under way. "If we say one box each of the grubs and the crickets, and maybe a half dozen of the scarabs - you don't want to overdo them," she explained. "Or the bird might start turning see-through. We can call that two galleons and... five sickles? Yeah, that's about right. That okay by you?"
Well she seemed happy to be getting some business. He dug in his pockets but he only found a the two Galleons and some Knuts he had the money just not on him. He pulled out the two gold coins. "How much can I get for the the gold portion of that price. I have sickles just don't have any on me for some reason. Can I come back and buy the rest later?" He asked.
It really made no difference, but he was curious about the beetles she mentioned. And so was the raven after feeling his curiosity.
Sylph shrugged offhandedly. "Don't worry," she said amiably. “If we say just five of the scarabs we can call it two galleons even. Now, bear with me and I'll get it all together for you."
Flashing a smile at her ex-student, the violet haired witch strode over to where the warp snakes sat on their shelf, which was at about chest height. Ignoring these as they disappeared into thin air on one side of their tank and then reappeared on the other, Sylph reached up to the shelf above them, and pulled down a wooden box that was a foot long but only about three inches wide and which had tiny holes drilled in the lid. "Crickets," she said as she placed this down on the front counter, speaking half to herself as if checking thing off a list. A large fish tank was brought down, the floor of which writhed with large, pearly white maggots. Using a scoop Sylph filled a small tub with these and then replaced the tank. "Grubs."
"Now... scarabs..." she muttered, her eyes scanning the shop, obviously trying to remember where she had put them. "Oh, screw it. Accio scarab tank." And, sure enough, another gleaming fish bowl flew to her, and she caught it with both hands. "Oh," she said, sounding disappointed as she looked down into it.
"They seem to have vanished just now," she told Malachy as she placed this down on the counter as well. "Oh, no, there's one," she said suddenly, cheering considerably. In dove her hand, seizing one of the unfortunate beetles around its green-black carapace. She summoned another of the long wooden boxes and plonked it in, sliding the lid shut over it. After a moment, she caught another. And another.
"There we go," she said at length, smiling at her customer. "Will you be needing a bag for that lot?"
Malachy watched sylph put the bugs into smaller containers, So did Belasko. He knew what was happening and he was studying every move the witch made. and from a distance it was also studying the boxes, how they where opened and closed. nothing escaped him.
Malachy payed the gold, "Think you for the help Ms.O'Dell I may have to come back some time. He said and he picked up the boxes of bugs then he noticed a rack of books and brochures on animals and diet sun similar things. "Hey ms. O'Dell where do you get your information books?" He asked it seemed like a very random question but Malachy was careful to collect all the information he could.
Last Edit: Aug 19, 2009 13:12:14 GMT -5 by Malachy
"I get them from a specialist stockist," Sylph answered slowly, momentarily taken aback by the rather random question. "I've not got the biggest selection, obviously, but if you needed something I'm sure I could order it for you. Why do you ask?"
Malachy could see no reason why not to tell her the truth. "Well I just bought Kihepa's Korner and I'm turning it into a combination bookstore and library. All sort of books have been catching my eye lately, and i don't think that having some animal book would hurt at all. If you can get me in contact with you source I'd be very grateful." He said shifting the boxes under his arms
Teagan Offline: This board is full of nostalgia.
Aug 22, 2020 8:39:09 GMT -5
Missing the old MH: gotta say missing when MH and all that was around.
Nov 6, 2019 0:02:30 GMT -5
Willow_lazy: why tf are there 400 posts about adidas
Sept 6, 2018 17:35:57 GMT -5
Azrael: I'm not hard to find, since I'm the only one there who goes by "Azzy", I'm pretty sure. XD
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:41 GMT -5
Azrael: Dunno if anyone still pops by here from time to time, but if any of you mofos do and still feel like gettin' yo nerd on, I've been hanging around this here place a bunch recently: www.roleplayerguild.com/
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:10 GMT -5
Azrael: hold onto your pantaloons
Jul 25, 2016 5:16:43 GMT -5