Exploring! [CLOSED]

Gilbert had to admit that the grounds for Hogwarts were more than impressive. In his previous school, the building had been modest and efficient, with large, well kept grounds. However, at Hogwarts, the grounds seemed to go on forever, even having its own lake with a giant squid and a massive forest with all manners of creatures lurking within it. It made Gilbert's adventure senses tingle, and he wasn't sure where to poke his nose into first! That wasn't getting into all the nooks and crannies and secret passageways Hogwarts had within the castle itself either! A building that old had to have some secrets to discover.

Gilbert decided to just explore the grounds for now though, when the sun wasn't peeking its unwanted head in. Gilbert operated best on cloudy days, where threat of being turned into Lobster Boy were nil. He didn't tan at all, and if he stood in the sun without protection, he burned within minutes. It meant he became either a hermit during summer time, or covered up completely and nearly die from heat stroke. So yes, the best weather for exploring outside were during cloudy days, like today.

He had learned, in his wanderings, that the grounds were a great relaxation spot. There were many trees to sit under, and the grass was soft and springy, and the air was nice and refreshing. There were nice views too. From where Gilbert was standing - underneath an old looking oak tree - one could see the lake, and the dark, ominous tree line of the Forbidden Forest. There were several students milling about on the grounds and near the lake as well, since the weather was cloudy, but not too bad either.

Gilbert flopped down at the base of the oak tree, dumping his bag on his lap. He had been walking for over an hour - trying to figure his way out of that damn castle, it had way too many twists and turns! - and his feet were killing him. His trainers weren't in the best condition either. In fact... He pushed his bag off of his lap and pulled his left shoe off, inspecting it with a frown. His shoes were just cheap trainers, a year old, and...oh, there. A hole was beginning to form near the front, where his big toe was.

"..." Did Reparo work on trainers? Well, only one way to find out. He fished about inside of his robes, and pulled out his wand; dragon heartstring, yew, thirteen inches, perfect for raw power but very little finesse. When his spells backfired, they backfired loudly and with a lot of smoke and fire. Gilbert had scorched his eyebrows off more times than he could count. Hopefully this spell wouldn't backfire. He had been performing it for several years! Although, it wouldn't be the first time an easy spell decided to randomly fail on him.

The first morning after his arrival at Hogwarts, Ludwig had unpacked his trunk, found his running clothes, and gone out for an exploratory jog around the castle grounds. Down past the lake, keeping the forest at his left-hand side, he'd made one complete lap and that had been enough: Ludwig had quite underestimated just how expansive the area was. But the grounds were beautiful, dotted over with many trees and covered in lush green grass, and he'd decided that every day, while the weather held, he'd go outside for at least a few minutes.

Today, Ludwig had more time to spare: he had finished his assigned work (to be fair, there hadn't been much) and the weather outside was warm without being sunny. Ludwig didn't have his brother's albinism, but fair skin ran in the family and he sunburned himself on bright days if he didn't wear a hat. As he exited the castle, Ludwig could easily see many others had the same idea: students were walking in pairs or trios around the lake, while some solitary individuals had propped themselves against rocks or trees to read books, daydream, or nap.

Following the downhill slope, Ludwig headed first towards the lake. His first impression of the Slytherin common room had been a somewhat murky and gloomy one, and all the exhortations and praise of its comfort from his British hosts couldn't deny that the only natural light the rooms got was filtered down through the green waters of the lake. Dimly, he wondered if students were allowed to swim in it, and whether or not he'd be able to swim right up to the common room windows. A glint of silver-white caught his eye and distracted him; looking up from the water, Ludwig spied an instantly familiar figure seated at the base of a large, old-looking tree.

As he neared Gilbert, Ludwig saw that his brother had his wand out and was staring determinedly at one of his shoes. Realizing the implications of this, the young man broke into a jog, reaching the tree in half the time. "Bruder!" he greeted, looking slightly anxious; try as he might, his eyes kept darting to the wand held in Gilbert's hand. "What's wrong with your shoe?" Ludwig had some skills in magic, but doubted he had the kind of practice needed to reconstruct an exploded trainer. He supposed if that happened, he could always transfigure Gilbert a new shoe... Ludwig had been forced to do that once before, at their school in Germany. The rocks had become shoes perfectly, but they had ended up brown leather oxfords. Ludwig had sworn to Gilbert that he wouldn't look better dressed as a Muggle accountant, and the shoes had, quite non-magically, become chew toys for Blackie shortly after.

"I bet you're happy there are so many clouds in Great Britain, right?" he asked, sitting down on the soft grass as a hint of a knowing smile passed across his face. "You shouldn't let any of the native students hear that, they can't stop talking about how badly they'd like a sunny day or two."

Gilbert was interrupted from his focus by a sudden shout. He jumped a little, almost dropping his wand, and looked up with a faint frown - that hurriedly cleared when he saw his brother approaching. He stowed his wand away and pulled his trainer back on, deciding that he'd try to fix it later. If he failed the spell while in front of Ludwig, his brother would never let him hear the end of it. Ludwig only meant well, but he was such a worrier and nagger, despite being the younger brother. People always mistook his more mature brother as the eldest one, especially as Ludwig towered over him since he shot up like a sprout during his growth spurts (whereas Gilbert forever remained at 5ft 7", which was below average height for the German male).


"Mm...just had a hole in it," Gilbert muttered, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. "Yeah, I heard that it stays cloudy all the time here, which is great. No sunburn for me!" He cheered, lifting his arms high in the air in celebration. Whenever it got too sunny, he usually made a makeshift hijab - which gathered very odd questions from Muggles back in Germany during the summer holidays. How many times Gilbert had to tell them that he wasn't Muslim, or a woman? It was obvious that he was a man! Even if hijabs were usually for women.


"So what're you up to? I would've thought you'd be studying or some shit like that."

As he made himself comfortable in the grass, Ludwig listened politely to his brother's explanation, instantly figuring out that the other had wanted to repair the hole in the shoe. Ludwig would have happily offered, but he was all too familiar with Gilbert's pride. Gilbert would surely want to fix that shoe himself, even if something got set on fire in the process. Ludwig would just have to wait until Gilbert came to him with the shoe for help.

"You wouldn't want to get water in your shoe, you should fix it," he recommended calmly, before hastily switching the topic back to the weather. "One of the teachers said that it would get very rainy in the fall, then snowy in the winter. So as long as you can put up with that, you'll be fine." Ludwig's hometown got quite cold in the winter, so the German believed it wouldn't be anything beyond what he could handle. Glancing back to his brother as Gilbert brought up his homework, Ludwig tried not to blush.

"I don't study all the time!" he defended a little weakly. "I finished all of my work anyways, and it's a nice day. It's just chance I saw you over here." He nudged Gilbert's school-bag with the toe of his shoe, "You're obviously not studying, so what are you doing out here?"

Gilbert snorted at the thought of him studying. He hated doing homework, and the only thing he practised was his wand work. What point was there in writing about the spell's creator? It didn't get you any closer to learning how to perform it right. It was just useless knowledge that wasted your time. Gilbert didn't see the use in such things. He only knew important stuff, like incantations, cool sounding rituals he dug up in the back of the libraries in his old school, constellations, blah blah blah. Essay content didn't fall underneath important information.

"I'm exploring!" He said proudly, grinning at his brother. "Have you seen how big this place is? I'm just scoping out the grounds first, before tackling the castle's deep dark secrets. Oh! Yeah," He nudged his brother with his elbow, his scarlet eyes turning sly. "Wanna come into the forest with me? I wanna see what makes the Forbidden Forest so 'forbidden'. I wonder if it has werewolves, or, or vampires! That would be awesome, wouldn't it?" He sighed dreamily. He loved learning about Dark Creatures. They just seemed to cool, with all sorts of freaky, nightmarish powers and appearances. "I wish I thought to bring my camera with me..."

Roderich sighed as he walked out to the grounds, pad of paper clutched under his left arm and his ink pen-a handy gift from his mother- clutched in his right hand. He looked around for a place to sit that would be quiet and give him privacy.

Today Roderich had decided to walk about the ground of Hogwarts and find a quiet place were he could write a letter. Usually he would do this in the common room, but he had promissed himself that he would get out of the castle more. That, and he didn't feel like writing a letter in an empty common room, at least out in the open it was less quiet and lonely.

Sighing he shook his head and glanced around, when he spotted a large tree he could sit under, that was far from the lake, he walked over and sat on the grass. Taking out his pad of writing paper he set it on his lap and took out his pen. "What should I tell them?" He mumbled, trying to think of what he should tell his parents.

It had to count, considering he would have to spend so much time with his grandparent's during summer break. His grandparent's thought it essential for him to spend long periods of time with them, even though he couldn't stand them.

Sighing he ran his fingers through his hair and leaned back against the tree trunk. For now he would just sit here until the words came to him.

( I hope this post was ok :) )

Thankfully, today Gilbert obviously didn't feel like he needed to tease Ludwig about studying further; the blonde youth was perfectly content to listen to how his brother had been passing the time instead. Nodding, he couldn't agree more with Gilbert's observations, "I've never seen any castle this big, not even including the grounds and forest." There were many castles in Germany, Ludwig knew, several of the most beautiful built by a Muggle king who'd shared his name. But none of them could even come close to matching Hogwarts for size.

As Gilbert's tone turned conspiratorial, however, Ludwig's expression turned anxious. "It's forbidden because it's dangerous!" he answered, repeating what he'd learned from one of the teachers, and the look on his face grew even more grim when Gilbert listed the magical creatures he wanted to meet. "Oh, I'm sure they'd be happy to pose for you if you found them," Ludwig retorted sarcastically. "Your camera probably wouldn't work on the grounds, anyways - you'd have to enchant it or something, make it magical." With a tinge of regret, Ludwig realized he might have accidentally volunteered himself for the task.

"Please, bruder, don't go in there," he finished. "What if you got lost and--" A nearby rustling of grass caused Ludwig's voice to trail off, and he looked suspiciously around for the source. If some eavesdropper had heard this conversation, and reported them to a teacher for planning something... Ludwig would have never gone into the forest by himself, but if his brother decided to anyways, he'd never be able to refuse to follow, even if the reason was to make sure Gilbert didn't get killed...

Standing quietly and circling around the wide trunk of the tree, Ludwig's eyes landed on a dark-haired student wearing Ravenclaw colors; he recognized his face as one of the exchange students, but couldn't come up with a name. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, a little rudely, before correcting his tone. "This tree's taken."

Gilbert huffed at the suggestion that he'd get lost and opened his mouth to protest, when he heard the grass rustling as well. He closed his mouth and frowned, and circled around the tree opposite his brother. They both came across the same Raven's Claw student, and he perked slightly. Oh, it was that guy from the Foreign Exchange Student room. He thinks. He looked familiar to him...a little. His name totally escaped him though.

"Hey, hey, Lutz, don't be such a grump," Gilbert hurried to intervene. This was brilliant. Raven's Claws were the smarty-pants of the castle, and if they were going to go and explore, they needed some nerdy bookworm to trot out the needed facts to vanquish evil monsters - Gilbert was the hero, and Ludwig was his Robin to his Batman, which would make the Raven's Claw student the Alfred of the group. Oh, his plan to go into the Forbidden Forest was looking more and more awesome, and Gilbert had a boyish look of excitement on his face. "Let's take him with us to that forest!"

Roderich jumped to his feet imediately, dropping his paper and pen in the process, and whirled around to look at who had barked a question at him. One was a tall blonde Slytherin boy, and the other was the Gryffindor he met in the Foreign Exchange common room. He frowned since the boy's name escaped him.

"I'm sorry if I barged over here, I was just sitting out here to write a letter. I didn't know it was taken".
Honsetly, he should have paid more attention.
However, when Roderich caught what the Gryffindor said his eyes widened a bit.

"Forest, you mean the Forbiden Forest?" He asked, already feeling nervous at the thought of going in.
It wasn't that he had never thought of it...Actually, he had wanted to go in and possibly see a magical creature. But he couldn't go in for a very importent reason.

He had a horrible sense of direction! It was a miracle he had even found the Foreign Exchange common room, and even then it was an accident.
Roderich cleared his throat, trying to calm down. "Umm, I'm sorry but I can't go in there".
Because if he did Roderich would probably get them killed by taking a wrong turn.

Ludwig shot his brother a sour look upon being chastised; he'd merely been trying to ward off eavesdroppers, although Gilbert seemed to have a completely different idea in mind. Even as the Ravenclaw student apologized for invading their space, Ludwig could sense some kind of plan at work and before he could intervene, Gilbert invited the stranger to join them on their quest.

"What-- I never agreed to go in there!" Ludwig turned to scowl at Gilbert. "What's this 'us' business?" But Gilbert was stubborn, and had apparently already made up his mind. Ludwig had a feeling if he refused further, Gilbert would pout, yell, sulk, guilt, and finally march off into the forest himself out of spite. He would know that Ludwig wouldn't have the heart to turn him in to a teacher or leave him alone like that: the only path left was for Ludwig to follow him.

Luckily, despite the cleverness of Gilbert's plan, the Ravenclaw student seemed to be putting up a fight. "That's right," Ludwig verified with a nod. "It's called the Forbidden Forest for a reason and we aren't supposed to be in there!" As much as he enjoyed the thrill of exploring and as much as he dreaded taking sides against his brother, Ludwig felt that in this case, he had an obligation to keep Gilbert from ending up injured or worse.

Gilbert frowned when his plan wasn't going as well as he had hoped, and he narrowed his eyes challengingly at his brother. Well, Gilbert knew Ludwig would follow him even if he went in by himself, but Ludwig would just bitch and moan during the entire trip, which would take the fun out of it a bit, and they needed bookworm, so how on earth could the Raven's Claw kid refuse? It was totally unfair! Adventures always needed at least a band of three, a smart guy, a leader, and the heavy lifting guy. Gilbert was obviously the leader, Lutz was the muscle, and the Raven's Claw student was the smarty pants of the group. Why couldn't they see that the formula was solid?

"Oh you two are just being a bunch of pansies," Gilbert scoffed, crossing his arms. "What's the worst that can be in there? Do you really think the school's going to keep something super dangerous there, so close to the school? Nah, worst we'll meet is like, a wolf or something, and even those are scared away by fire or sparks." He laughed boisterously, and leaned forwards a little, his red eyes mischievous. "C'moooon~ we'll even go during the day, so all the Dark Creatures will be asleep. But, if you're all too scared to, fine. I'll just go by myself."

Roderich was releived when the Slytherin boy agreed with him. That forest was Forbiden for a reason, it was probably filled with evil creatures lurking about...And he didn't want to get lost and probably die by the hands of one of them. Honestly, how would it sound to his family to here he died from getting lost and killed by a magical creature.

Roderich scowled when the Gryffindor called him a panisie. He was not a pansie! Roderich had his reason's for not wanting to go in, beside's the fact that it was against the rules. He was about to tell him this and stand his ground...Until the other said he was just scared to go in. That got him riled a bit, so much so that when he replied he slipped into his native tounge. "Ich bin kein Angst verdammt noch mal!" And he wasn't scared...At least not for the reason this boy assumed!

Shaking his head to calm himself, he crossed his arms and met the others stare head on. He debated on what to do now. He had a couple of options in front of him.

Option one: He refused to go in and be safe, and have his pride ruiened. But he would be marked as a coward, he was not a coward, and he would not let someone kick his pride. Another reason he couldn't stay behind was because he knew he wouldn't go tell someone were the two student's where heading. If there was one thing Roderich Edelstein was not it was a snitch. However, if he didn't tell anyone it would mean that none of the professors would know what happened to the Gryffindor and Slytherin boy's. No one would be able to go in and help, then the two student's would probably get injured...or worse.

He couldn't let that happen. People may think he didn't care about the wellbeing of another person, especially if the person was acting like an idiot, but he he wasn't some heartless arsch. Roderich was fairly well knowledged on magical creatures...Even if it was just book knowledge, so he might be able to help.

That came to option two: Go with them and have his pride intact, and possibly try to be helpful and hope they didn't run into anything to deadly...or deadly at all.

Roderich glanced away a moment, thinking of his options for awhile. He had to decide carefully. He mentally sighed to himself, he really hoped he wouldn't regret this. However, this did mean he had the opertunity to see...well see something he hadn't before. A magical creature, like the ones he read about in book's. After a long, and careful debate with himself he looked back at the Gryffindor. "Fine I'll go with you." He paused before adding, "But we can't stay long in there. Just because it's day time doesn't mean there isn't something that could kill us in there."

(ooc: Yep, don't mess with Roddy's pride, he doesn't like it hehe. :P Of course, it does get him in trouble >.> And he's secretly a nice guy:)...He just, doesn't show it often hehe :P )

Ludwig should have expected that Gilbert would try a new tactic, but that didn't prevent him from scoffing when his brother called both him and the Ravenclaw student pansies. He folded his arms a little defensively across his chest and retorted, "I am not a pansy! I just don't rush headfirst into crazy plans!" Gilbert did have a bit of a point, though, one Ludwig had never considered, as he'd just taken the teachers' warnings at face value. Would the staff of Hogwarts really keep dangerous magical beasts on the grounds of a school? True, the forest extended beyond the borders, but perhaps, like the castle itself, there were enchantments in place to protect the school.

Raising his eyebrows in surprise as the Ravenclaw spoke up in his native tongue, Ludwig felt curious: he hadn't considered that there'd be other German-speaking students here. But questions would have to wait: apparently, the dark-haired student had taken Gilbert's tease to heart a little too seriously. "What?" he blurted out, confused, when the Ravenclaw agreed to Gilbert's plan. "You can't be serious..." Great. Now if herefused to go, he was going to be the one looking like a coward. You could get killed, Ludwig reminded himself. We could all get killed. And now Gilbert was looking at him expectantly, red eyes sparkling with excitement. Ludwig slapped a hand to his forehead and looked pained.

"Fine," he groaned. "I'll go too. But I'm with him-" he pointed at the Ravenclaw, "we go during the day and we don't linger." Heaving a short sigh, he shot a look at his brother, "You know Onkle's going to kill us both if he ever finds out about this, right?" Ludwig was quite familiar with Gilbert's tendency to see only the adventure at hand and not the consequences afterwards.

Gilbert practically beamed, more than a little smug about his victory. Hah, and people said the Slith-ins were the conniving lot of the school. Gilbert was plenty cunning, since he knew how to entice people to go along with his schemes. He was just that awesome. He clapped his hands together, grinning at his brother as his eyes sparked with mischief. "Yeah, but he's not gonna find out, is he? Unless someone snitches on us, which won't be any of us. So we're safe."

He spun on his heel, moving around the tree to pick up his bag. "Well let's go then! We're wasting precious daylight by standing here, talking, when we can go out and have our awesome Adventure! We're gonna find such awesome stuff, and awesome creatures, and it'll be so cool~" The albino was practically dancing with glee, jumping slightly as he looked between his two companions with an excited look on his face. He loved adventure, he loved spooky, magical forests, and he loved magical creatures. He got along with animals amazingly well, and a few magical ones too. That didn't mean he thought the animals of the forests wouldn't hurt him, but he understood their mindset pretty well, and didn't feel threatened, not even if they ran into the spell resistant werewolves.

Not that they would, what with it being in the middle of the day with the full moon ages away.

Roderich knew that he was agreeing to something stupid, especially when he saw the Gryffindor boy practicaly beaming when he and the blonde agreed to go along with his plan. However, there was nothing he could do about it now, he might as well tough it out and go on this adventure. Besides, he might actually enjoy himself.

This guy uses the word awesome a little to much, he thought a bit annoyed, shaking his head he brushed it off. He grabbed his notepad and pen that had been left on the ground, tucking it under his arm thinking they might come in handy while they were in the forest. He subconciouly grabbed the front of his shirt, his mothers cross there, taking his hand away he turned to look at his fellow...adventurers? he just realized something...Roderich had yet to know their names!

He cleared his throat politely, "Before we go, I think we should know each others names first." He held his hand out to shake, giving a polite smile. " I'm Roderich Edelstein"

All the worries and doubts Ludwig had about venturing into the forest only intensified when Gilbert decided (of course) that they might as well go now. There had been absolutely no preparation or strategy, and Ludwig disliked this: all he had was his wand. Not like he couldn't Transfigure a cloak if it got cold, but he had a perfectly good one back in the Slytherin dormitory. "He's not going to find out," he repeated a little grudgingly. Unless something bad happens, obviously, he added as an afterthought in his mind.

The Ravenclaw student seemed to have taken to the idea a little more, and didn't look as worried. Ludwig took his hand and shook it politely, although he remained unsmiling, "I'm Ludwig Beilschmidt. Nice to meet you." Letting go of Roderich's hand, he nodded at Gilbert, "This is my brother, he can introduce himself." Gilbert would certainly want to make his own introduction impressive or fancy or "awesome", as he liked to explain himself so often.

With the weight of this breaking of rules still lingering in his mind, Ludwig kept sneaking glances up at the castle, half-expecting a teacher to exit the front doors and attempt to stop them. He wished he had his Care of Magical Creatures textbook, too - although Gilbert had brought his schoolbag. Surely they could use that for a reference, although, Ludwig thought bitterly, they'd hardly have time to read while they were being attacked. Just because it was day and there were no werewolves about didn't mean the rest of the forest's creatures were benign.

Gilbert puffed himself up, brushing his shirt down as he gave a positively wolfish grin to the Raven's Claw boy. "I am Gilbert! Awesome magician of the lion's den! My main strengths are curses and hexes, so y'know, don't bother picking a fight with me, because you'll just lose." He laughed merrily to himself at the thought of anyone beating him in a duel, and shouldered his bag. It held a few of his textbooks, but it was mostly full of chocolate and other sweets. Hey, he was skinny so he didn't have to watch his diet! He could snack on whatever he waaaaanted, heh heh heh~

"Okay!" he suddenly barked, clapping his hands together and looking between his fellow adventurers. "We'll spend two hours exploring the forest, since it's the afternoon and late into winter, so it'll get dark by then. If we get split up, just send sparks up into the air, and we'll find you, or something." He nodded, scrunching his face up as he tried to remember any other survival things. "Also, uh, make sure you don't touch any weird mushrooms or plants. If there's other survival stuff, Bruder will know, so yeah. Onwards! To Adventure!"

With that final cry, Gilbert made sure his bag was secure and bolted off towards the tree line of the Forbidden Forest, before Ludwig changed his mind and hog-tied him or something. This was going to be fun! He heard that there were some rare Potion ingredients in there as well. Gilbert didn't take Potions any more, since he was unable to concoct one without turning the classroom into Ground Zero, but there was a surprising lucrative business in the Black Market for Potion ingredients. Gilbert could just ask Ludwig what was what and pocket it to sell later.

(Okay, apparently, if we're gonna do Forbidden forest, we need to make a new thread in the Forbidden Forest section and close this one. So after Ludwig's posted this thread'll close and I'll make a new one. Is that okay?)

Roderich's nodded back. "It's nice to meet you Ludwig". Well, the boy may not have been very 'smiley', but he was polite and that was something. It meant he was, most likely, the mature one of the two. Thank Gott!

His eye twitched when the Gryffindor, Gilbert, introduced himself. He acted a bit cocky to him, and for one thing Roderich would have never considered getting into a fight with him. He only entered fights if it was a last choice...Or someone decided to challenge his masculinity.

Roderich made a mental sigh of relief when the other mentioned his plan and how long they'de actually be in there. Two hours was a reasonable time, and at least the other had some sort of plan. Well, at least he isn't an idiot. The plan actually sounded reasonable. He rolled his eyes when the other mentioned not touching any odd plant life, honestly, anyone with common sense would know not to touch an abnormal plants.

Shaking that thought off he nodded, "Alright, lets get going." With that he jogged over to stand next to Gilbert at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, casting a nervouse glance at the Forest he reached for his hidden cross. It helped calm him, especially when he was about to do something no one would expect him to do. It was scary yet...fun almost. Tightening his hold on his notepad Roderich waited for the last member of their little group to join. Time to act daring for once...like the men from the novels I read.


( Sure that's fine :). And as an after note, I really hope Roddy's some-what in chacter here :P. )

Ludwig watched his older brother calmly as Gilbert gave his overly dramatic introduction. It was a scene the blonde boy had witnessed many times, and as he knew what to expect, the theatrics no longer affected him. A little amusingly, Roderich didn't seem to think much of Gilbert's bragging either. He seemed to be a decent person, however, and the fact that he didn't retort to Gilbert's brash attitude proved that to Ludwig. "Sparks it is, then," he agreed calmly, "although we shouldn't split up in the first place. And how about just... not touching anything unless you know for a fact that it is safe?" That strategy made more sense to him.

"And I'd rather not have to use survival skills if-- hey!" Gilbert had gone dashing off towards the forest, shortly followed - to Ludwig's surprise - by Roderich. Perhaps their new acquaintence had been concerned about getting left behind. Grumbling, Ludwig lowered his head and ran off after the others, jogging to a halt near the edge of the forest where they waited. "What is the point of putting any kind of safety measures in place if you're just going to run off and do what you want?!" he demanded, drawing his wand out of his pocket to have it at the ready. "Honestly..." His brother could act so immature sometimes.

"Let's just get this over with before someone catches us," Ludwig muttered, turning his gaze to the shady forest spread out before them. He couldn't deny that the forest looked beautiful: the huge, ancient trees and the beams of sunlight breaking through their leaves and branches seemed to have come from straight out of a painting. It would have been a perfect place for a hike, had he not been so worried about the dangers involved.


[[Sorry for the delay! And I think you're playing Roderich fine so far!]]

( Alrighty, here's the new thread https://wiztalia.rpg-board.net/t568-exploring-continued-gilbert-ludwig-roderich <3 )