Still staying close to Zander and Tobes, Sophie's gaze did fall upon Evie, who was walking especially close to Javy, and she let out a quiet snort. What was she doing? Did he smell good or something? Well... yes, okay, he probably did, she knew that already, so Soph just resigned to grinning goofily over at her dormmate and hoping to catch her eye to give her a funny look.

At the creatures professor's question, Sophie's hand went UP. "Bowtruckles, like, guard their trees, 'cause they're attracted to trees whose wood are used for wands. So they guard 'em 'cause the wood is so high quality and desired and stuff. But that makes sense, that they'd wanna live in the trees with the best wood, 'cause we wanna live in the best places we can find, too, y'know?" No one wanted to live in a lame tree when they could live in one that made all the other bowtruckles jealous.

Zander really did appreciate Sophie Brown's efforts to lift him up, even if he may not have been showing it on his face. It was just kind of hard to show positivity just now, y'know? But being outside kind of helped. He hadn't really been outside since the forrest incident and that was way back. So this was nice. He liked it, being surrounded by the trees. So much so that when another question was posed, Zander Adair decided to offer up an answer this time.

He listened to a couple of the others before raising his own hand slowly, "They're very small... Only grow to around eight inches or something.." He nudged Sophie just a bit as if to say 'See, I'm okay'. Or well, he'd be okay... Eventually.

Eden enjoyed this a lot. Being near the trees and the EARTH...one with nature, etc....it was such her thing. Ugh. She didn't even mind that she was smiling all..airily at the surroundings. Ah. Her brain could think better outside. She felt more at peace and at HOME when out here...rather than in a classroom.

Sigh. Why couldn't ALL classes be outside? It's why she was so drawn to CoMC to begin with...

BUT BOWTRUCKLES! They were so COOOOL! Eden raised her hand--and bounced a little. "Bowtruckles are such nice little dears! Well--until you threaten the home they're guarding--then they be QUITE nasty--" and she smirked. Because she LIKED that about bowtruckles. And reminded her of herself. Nice until...ahem, she needed to not be nice. "They like to go for the EYES. And their claws are quite equipped for it." Ouch.

As Eden stood by her, Lux sent the older Ravenclaw a wave and smile. It was always nice to be around friends and she loved all of hers.

Professor Thompson brought up the trees surrounding them and Bowtruckles. Huh, it never occurred to her that the creatures would call Hogwarts trees their home, but honestly it wasn't a topic she gave much consideration to in her day to day life. Trying to recall what she knew about Bowtruckles, the Honorary Lion raised her hand. "A Bowtruckle serves as tree guardian for its home tree, like a Porlock and its herd of horses." Look at her making comparisons to earlier lessons, hehe. "Usually the trees are of wand quality." Knowing other facts, she left it at that so as not to hog everything from her friends.

Soph and Zander were here. RIGHT BESIDE HIM. That was good. GOOOOOOOOOD. Toby had the urge to throw an arm around Zander's shoulders, but he KNEW if he did that he'd sort of have to commit to standing still and NOT bouncing which was just HORROR to his ears... uh... inner ears?... right now. So he just RUFFLED HIS HAIR instead.

Bowtruckles then, huh? Well... Toby may have been a leeeeeeeeettle pre-occupied with the hair-ruffling to have raised his hand straight away, but he did NOW, reached his hand wait up into the air before speaking.

"They're delicate little flowers," he said, speaking quickly and enthusiastically. "Not literally, though, 'cause they're animals, not flowers, though they do like a bit like twigs. But they ARE delicate. If you hold onto them too tight they can snAP. So like. Don't. Don't do that. Y'need to respect them. If you don't-" throwback to five minutes ago: "-they'll getcha." With them claws that Eden mentioned, YEP. Maybe even teeth too.

SUPER SRS NODDING.

Bowtruckles? They were looking at Bowtruckles? .... That was not what he expected. In fact, it was kinda boring.

...

He was half listening to answers, so when he came to the conclusion to offer his own response to the question, he wasn't sure if his nugget of information was already given.

Hand up, he contributed anyway. "Professor, they eat woodlice so like... if you want them on your good side, offer them woodlice." Or something like that. But making friends with a tree guardian was not on his list of things to do while at Hogwarts.

Finn followed behind his Professors and classmates, making sure to not stray from anyone. Which, should never be too difficult to happen right now, there were lots of bodies in front of him.

Now, bowtruckles, Finn didn't know too much here. But, there was, he felt, something he could add on to what the other's had already said. "They're not... they're not very dangerous, are they?" He started making his way through. More explanation to come. "I-I mean, they're only marked with-with two scores in the Ministry ranking. For creatures." The only time they got dangerous, was, just like the others had said, when they felt threatened by something or someone.

When professor Thompson asked the next question, Norah looked down quickly from the leaves she'd been watching with mesmerized smile on her face. Oh right. Class. Trees were just so DISTRACTING, y'know? She blinked a few times before scrunching up her nose and deciding what to say. Bowtruckles, bowtruckles. She'd read about those before, being like a plant AND an animal at the same time, they deserved a good bit of attention. Putting her hand in the air, she answered, "They eat wood cooties! I mean, um woodlice. Yeah." Cough cough. Coooouuuugh. Nobody heard that.

Information overload?

Those kids are too smart, really. Ethan’s head swiveled from his left to his right, memorizing all of their answers. Well, they pretty much said everything already and the Slytherin flipped through his brain for another answer that has not been mentioned yet. Size, classification, offerings that will appease or distract the creature…but, how about its provenance?

Ethan raised his hand and offered his question. “Bowtruckles can be found in Southern Germany, Western England and…forests in Scandinavia.” Well, they ought to know WHERE to look IF they want to encounter one, yes? Also, it is interesting to note that those creatures guard the best kind of wood for wands. Huh. For some reason, he heard the sound of jingling galleons. Maybe he should team up with Cutty one day so they could make some sort of...business from those creatures.

Soooooooooo. What’s going to happen next? Will they learn how to feed and take care of the Bowtruckles? Extract it? Get a good wood wand from the trees they're guarding right now?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charely Potter

Venturing out of the Greenhouses with the students led by Professor Millard with Professor Thompson right behind. Eventually once they approached the Treehouse, "Through here." Before directing them towards the group of many trees just past the Treehouse before he began.

"Take a good look around you," Javier gestured at the trees, "We will be spending the duration of our lesson here." Now why was that? "As you already or should know, the trees have proven their usefulness to everyone." The particular details Archie would be more likely to go into later on, "But first we will want to be aware that these trees are currently inhabited by Bowtruckles." Bam, the mystery on their creature of the day was revealed. "Now what do you all know of Bowtruckles?"

---
ooc: Be sure to speak of only one fact on them if your character knows of them. Lesson will continue later on.

Bowtruckles? Oh great. Caleb could already FEEL their tiny, sharp claws digging into his fingers. UGH. It made him cringe. He raised his hand to answer the question. "They're mean little things, if you don't handle them correctly," he told him. Caleb didn't blame them - if people tried to break into HIS home and HE had sharp little claws, he'd be trying to claw at anything in sight too.

Now what did he know about Bowtruckles? Hmm well he knew they were creatures that looked like twigs if you weren't careful. He thought about it and he remember his grandma telling him about these creatures. They do guard a certain type of tree and he couldn't remember the name. He thought about it and once he knew the name because it began with a W. He raised his hand and said,

"Professor I know they are guardians of Wiggentrees." There that was one fact. He wasn't completely useless on this subject.

Bright students as always. "In addition to their diet of wood lice, they are fine with accepting worms and maggots in the absence of wood lice." Continuing, "So as a good number of you have pointed out. We will need to lure them out so we can gain access to the trees." Which meant, "In order to prevent the risk on Bowtruckle invasion right away, we will be digging in the ground for worms." Sounded lovely, didn't it? "Not to worry, in case you didn't have your own gloves provided you can borrow these along with a bucket to put the worms in."

Setting the large bucket that had many smaller ones inside, with a good amount of the familiar pink and glittered gloves. Compliments from a certain former Professor. The Creature Professor then lowered himself to the ground before explaining, "After donning your gloves, you can start with scooping in the dirt for any worms or maggots before dumping it in the bucket." Which he then did so. Taking a good helping of a ball of dirt, that held some wiggling worms before dropping it from his blue-gloved hands into a bucket.

"[b]After filling it enough, you can approach one of the trees and shake the bucket towards it to get them interested in earthy smell. Professor Thompson went to one of the trees and gave the bucket a good *shake, shake shake* It looked like nothing had happened until Javier unexpectedly dropped the bucket down. Letting three bowtruckles squeak on their way over inside for a tastey feast. "Now it's your turn."

---
OOC: As instructed, you're to lure some bowtruckles from the nearby trees. In at least three labeled posts you are to do the following:
- Don on gloves and pick a bucket
- Search ground for worms and maggots
- Collect them into the bucket
- Attempt to lure the Bowtruckles away from the tree
- Sit back and watch them start eating

You will have at least 24 hours to complete this before we continue on.

Well, that’s convenient. They can’t have fairy eggs or wood lice all the time, yeah? That’ll be too expensive, and might cause him to go bankrupt if he decides to make a business out of Bowtruckles AND the trees that they are guarding. Hehehe. So yes, worms and maggots it is!

Ethan looked from Professor Thompson, to Professor Millard, expecting him to say something. But hey, it looks like activity time came in early which is YAY! Ethan quickly took down that bit of information on his small parchment, while looking at Professor Thompson do a demo. LOL! Look at those adorable food driven Bowtruckles! They’re just like crups!

Now that they got the go signal, Ethan kept his notes and quill in his bag, then fished his own dragon hide gloves from it…only to realize that he FORGOT them. Eeh. Oops? Pink, glittery gloves then? LOL. He can pull it off, definitely. There is no such thing as fashion disaster when it comes to the sixteen year old Slytherin. One Grayson Whitlock can attest to that.

Getting himself a bucket, and a pair of pink glittery gloves, Ethan wore the latter, picked a random spot and started to dig for some delicious worms and maggots.

"Note too self,'' Adi thought. "Worms and maggots work just fine for the Bowtruckles.'' As Thompson explained the part about the worms for the activity, the Puffer automatically glanced at AJ and grinned. She was going to enjoy this! Annnnd it was a good thing he brought his own gloves. He wasn't in the mood to use anything pink and glittery today. Haha.

Gloves on, Adi grabbed one of the buckets. Now to start rounding up those worms! He selected spot next to Ethan. Rock music buddies at work! "Haya again, Ethan.'' And just where were those worms? Adi dug a bit with his fingers before picking up a patch of dirt to examine it.

They were going to get dirty and AJ LOVED getting dirty. She really didn't even need to use her gloves, but no need to start off on the wrong foot. After listening to everything that needed to be done, she slipped her own gloves on and grabbed a bucket. Here wormies, wormies, wormies.

AJ plopped down on the ground and started digging like a dog after a buried bone. She wanted to get the most worms out of everyone and in turn get the most bowtruckles out of their trees. She couldn't help but wonder if she would find any maggots. That would be an extra tasty treat for her little tree creatures.

Where were these worms hiding? Maybe the dirt that was flinging behind her had worms and she was being too impatient to stop and look. AJ breathed out and tried to calmly look for worms.

Angel was totally going to love this lesson she could tell, now though she had to get prepared gloves were always important when you were a Diva because otherwise things would go really wrong and you might accidently break a nail and that is something that this Diva didn't want to happen to her... it had taken her forever to get her nails like they were.

Angel put on the gloves making sure that they were on properly... obviously she didn't want anything happening to her hands or any dirt getting in her fingers through the gloves because she knew that would be bad very bad.

Angel then went and grabbed a bucket... she looked at all the buckets until she picked one she liked. Okay so it might have seemed picky but she wanted the best one she could find and she wanted one that could do a grand job... Now what was next on the list?

Digging for worms and maggots? Seriously?

Hady smirked slightly pulling her gloves from her pocket. Forest green gloves to be exact. Slipping them on she made sure they were nice and snug. Yup they fit just as they should. Good. Good.

Next was a bucket. That she didn't have so she'd need to borrow one. Which was okay since the Professor had a bunch of them. Making her way to where the Professor was she gave him a cute grin before collecting herself a bucket gripping it by it's handle and moving out of the way.

Now she just needed a good spot to dig in the dirt.

Hunting for maggots and worms, Hunting for maggots and worms.

So far this hunt had been greeeat! Adi's bucket was approximately half way full... or half way empty, depending on how one looked at it. Most of the creepy crawlers were worms though. The spot where he had chosen to dig seemed to be more worm inhabited.

Unearthing another clump of dirt, Adi checked it. Oooh. Maggots! Cool! That pile was was added to the bucket. And so were more worm piles. The bucket was almost filled to the brim a little while later. In just a few seconds, he'd be on his way to one of those trees.

Bucket in hand and gloves on Hady found herself a spot of dirt. Settling down on her knees in the dirt she set her bucket beside her. Lightly running her fingers through her spot of dirt to soften it up she then began to digging a hole.

Scooping up a handful of dirt she dropped it into her bucket. Just a handful of dirt first. Ya know for the wormy and maggot guys and gals to settle in. Another scoop of dirt in one hand she used the other to shift the dirt around to see if she had anything good. Nope.

Dropping the dirt pile aside she grabbed up another handful. Score! This one had wormies! Grinning she dropped the worms and dirt into her bucket. This is how it went for several minutes. Handfuls of dirt...shifting dirt and dropping her worms or maggots into her bucket.

Glancing into her bucket Hady realized it was almost full. This was good just another handful or dirt or two and she would be done with this part...a little sad though she was having fun honestly. Oh well.

More maggots! Plop! Right down into the bucket they went.

Now that she was going about finding the worms in a more controlled way she was having better luck right off the bat. With the next scoop of dirt she found a worm. One lonely little worm. "Were are your worm friends?" Didn't they travel in packs? Or was that fish? Also, where is the worm colony? It looked like she was going to have to work for this which was okay with her.

AJ slung the lone worm into her bucket, and continued to dig for more hidden treasures. Dig. Aha. Another worm. She placed that one into the bucket, and looked down to see another one sticking out of the dirt. Her hands wrapped around that one, and added it into the bucket as well.

She moved over to another patch that hadn't been touched yet, and dug a big chunk of dirt up. As soon as she looked at the bottom, she realized that she had hit the jackpot. Maggots. Lots and lots of maggots. That was the good thing about them, if you saw one you were going to see twenty. AJ dropped every last one of the maggots into her bucket, and continued to dig up more worms until she had about ten.

Okay, a few seconds turned into minutes since Adi dug up some dirt under which a combination of worms and maggots lived. JACKPOT! Wasting no time, he scooped them up into the bucket. Woot! These should REALLYYY please the little bowtruckles.

Right. NOW he was all set to lure out the tree guarding creatures. Again by random selection, Adi made his way to one of the trees and proceeded to upturn his bucket. Out tumbled dirt, maggots and worms. Come and gettit, bowtruckles! A delicious meal awaited!

The Puffer set the bucket down then stood back to watch the creatures. Yessers. Movement! Bowtruckles leaving their tree alert! He kept looking at them with excitement as they started to chow down on the crawlers.

Letting himself sink on the ground, Ethan started to dig the earth. He’d get a clump of dirt from the ground, shake the excess and see if he got any worms or maggots in there. He’s lucky to get at least three, so in the bucket they go! The Slytherin continued to dig for worms and maggots, when a familiar Hufflepuff kneeled beside him.

“Yo, Adi!” Heeeey! He’s a pretty cool Badger, and one of few students who Ethan admires. The kid’s gonna go places with that kind of attitude. “How are you holding up with the revisions?” It’s also his OWL year right? More worms and maggots were dumped into his bucket, and was quite surprised with the realization. “This school is pretty much abundant with worms and stuff.” He said as he held up a fistful of dirt with worms and maggots squirming out of it. As he dumped the treats inside his bucket, he didn’t realize that Adi already gave the Bowtruckles a go. Well, he really shouldn’t be surprised with those Badgers. Hardworking and always on the go! “Well done, rockstar.” Ethan gave Adi a snappy salute with his soiled gloved hand, sending dirt flying off of it.

Grabbing hold of her bucket Hady rose to her feet. A tree. A tree. Hmm...

Tree. Tree. To many trees...

Walking in a circle she finally just choose a random smallish then the others tree. Giving her bucket a few good shakes to catch the attention of them little Bowtruckle thingys, the dirt spilling onto the ground she eyed the tree. Where were they? Letting out a huff of breath Hady flipped her bucket over dumping the dirt, worm and maggot buffet onto the ground...and um maybe her shoes a little too. Oops...

Kicking her foot out to knock a worm off her sneaker she took a few steps backwards and waited. Setting the bucket beside her feet she watched the tree silently, lifting a hand to scratch her cheek smearing dirt there having forgotten about the gloves she had on.

It took a minute or two before anything happened. Anything she could notice anyways. Slowly...so slowly there was movement and down came these funny looking twig like creatures! Bowtruckles! She'd done it! The little critters scampered over to her dirt and worm feast chomping down on the deliciousness of it...uh yeah no. Nope it was gross but if they liked it then all was good.

In Ethan’s opinion, the amount of worms and maggots inside his bucket could feed at least 10 to 15 Bowtruckles at the same time. Happy with his goodies, he picked his container up, and chose a bigger tree away from the others. Ethan sized up the said tree wondering what kind it was. Maybe Professor Millard will teach them how to identify their chosen tree? That will be really helpful when it comes to choosing wood for his wand...or maybe for his gandr!

Ethan nodded to himself and wafted the smell of the worms and maggots inside his bucket towards his chosen tree. Those Bowtruckles should be able to identify food right away, yes? Because...FOOD! The Slytherin gave it a good shake...and dropped the bucket on the ground spilling all the goodies out. Slowly but surely, the Bowtruckles came out one by one...then dived for the treats!

Ethan slooooowly backed away with a grin on his face. Oh aren’t they the cutest? Wait, did that Bowtruckle just punched his fellow tree guardian? LOL!

Alright, time to see if Caleb could do this without getting any intense injuries. He dug into his bag and pulled out his gloves - his trusty gloves, which were getting a bit worn out. Hmm. He made a mental note to buy a new pair next summer before starting his NEWT classes.

Once he had his dragonhide gloves on, he headed towards the trees and grabbed a bucket. Let's DO THIS.