The First Step of a Long Journey PV N. Lazarus

Taliesin had to admit, she enjoyed how Nick seemed to light up from within from her interest and awe over the paper swan. She took in all his chatter intently as he explained his little trick and how it had been her grandmother who taught him, and her brother before her. Taliesin smiled a bit at his offer to show her how to make them once the got to school. Certainly it would be an amusing thing to show Nanny Morgan once she went home for the holidays.

Her eyes flickered to the crumple little paper flower he produced from his pocket, "I never knew Muggles could do little tricks like that." she thought aloud before looking up nervously that perhaps he might think she were ignorant in the worst way for it, "I mean, I know they have their ways of doing things and creating things. I've just never seen them make such tiny creations out of paper. I like it."

Gingerly, she turned the little swan over in her hand, looking at all the creases and folds holding the paper in shape. Despite having watched as he'd made it, she was still baffled that it stayed together, much less how quickly and confidently he'd made it, "It's a special talent, I think. Especially to have gotten to learn it from your Grandmother." she smiled.

Nick made a confused look for a moment then chuckled softly. "Oh no no! Not my Grandmother, my Godmother! She's not really related to me I think!" Although that still made him happy to thing about.

"My mom is this famous singer you know, and one day, when she was still pregnant with me she went on tour through Japan! She met Aya there and they had been friends ever since!" He sighed softly. "I'm sad that I couldn't say bye to her before I got into the train, but I'll send her a big letter when we get there, I'm sure she will like it!"

But then he paused, thought for second and smiled at his new friend. "Of course Muggles have tricks! Although they don't have magic like we do." He looked back down at his pretty little origami. "Muggles are...extraordinary in many ways! Since they don't get to use magic to make life easier, they had to come up with all kinds of genius inventions to deal with things we can fix with a flick of a wand! You know they have this thing called a plane and it's just this giant metal bird that flies people from place to another! And they have full stations just for those! That's how Aya gets to and from Japan!" And he was right back at babbling non stop.

Taliesin blush a little when she'd realized her mistake; though Nick thankfully didn't make a big deal of it as he easily rolled through the correction before continuing on with his talking. It was nice not having to worry about figuring out what she needed to say or how to respond constantly. It didn't seem like he was even capable of running out of things to say, and the talking to her seemed to come so easily to him.

It was nice having someone talking to her, instead of at her.

She listened quietly as he told her about his mother's singing and meeting his Godmother, Aya. It seemed like they were a close pair with how fondly he talked of the woman. For a moment her thoughts wondered to what it would be like to travel the world. Granted she wasn't much of a singer, but she could play piano. Maybe a concert pianist? Playing all around the world and meeting all sort of strange and fascinating and kind people would be such an adventure.

The young witch was brought back from her wonderings as Nick began talking about Muggles. Taliesin didn't have much experience in that world in any capacity aside from occasionally seeing them while walking in bigger cities. Her mother and Governess hardly seemed impressed by them and unwilling to entertain her questions when she dared ask. So when he began explaining how they were the resourceful sort to make up for their lack of magical ability, she was quite interested... until he began explaining planes. That sounded quite fantastical and impossible, "A giant metal bird?" she asked slowly, unsure she'd heard him quite right.

On the one had, she felt inclined to believe him, after all why would he lie? On the other hand, "Are you sure your Aya wasn't telling you a story? Adults do that sometimes. My Nanny use to tell me that babies grew in the garden like mandrakes. But she had to tell me the truth when I learned what mandrakes actually were and what they were used for." she giggled.

Nick was very much like a radio, if you pressed a couple of buttons then there was no stopping his words for as long as he had them. His babbling was always incessant and he always had so much to talk about, yet no one to share them with. This was the very first time he had ever met another kid his age that he had time to talk to for more than a couple of minutes, so this was his time to shine and spew every word he had in that little brain of his.

"I thought so too! But then one day we went to pick Aya from this place called a 'airport' and they just had those big birds just sitting there waiting!" He laughed, like what he had said was the most bizarre and unimaginable thing in this world. "Aya came out of one of those along a bunch of other muggles who seemed completely fine doing that! Although, I don't think the bird was alive, I think it was a little like a broom? It may have something in it that makes it fly from one place to the other, maybe Muggles have their own type of magic they won't let us know about!"

Then he crossed his legs, like he was just sitting at a blanket during a picnic at the park and not inside a moving train. "My dad says that asking questions is the only way we go further so I just asked her so many things about those giant birds! She said there's small ones, and then there's this big massive ones that fly super high up above the clouds! She said she has used those to go to all sorts of places like North America."

Then he stopped talking when she spoke, which was one of his only good qualities when it came to talking, he was a babbling machine but he did want to hear what she had to say. Her story about how babies were made did make him laugh.

"That's almost what happened to me too!" He giggled, shaking his head. "My mom said to me that babies were made of the flowers that sprouted in the forests, and that parents would just go there and pluck one if they wanted a baby. Until one day I came home panicking because I accidentally swallowed a seedling when I was out playing by the trees and I was afraid I had a baby hidden in my belly now because of it!" He did get a bit blushy about the story, it was embarrassing how much he had panicked about it.

"Your nanny sounds fun! Mine were always so boring and grey and serious" Then he leaned back against the seat, he never seemed to settle down in one place for too long. "She would come over, teach me boring things all day until my parents were back from wherever they decided to go without me. She always said that I was 'Oh so chatty, completely ghastly presence that needs to be corrected as soon as possible to avoid trouble in the future', and I think my dad believed her quite a bit." Which had been a pattern on every adult in his life, that Nicholas was and still is a problematic boy who couldn't shut his mouth to save his life.

Her brow furrowed a bit, trying to wrap her brain around the concept he was explaining to her; but each details sounded more and more fantastical. Were Muggles using the carcass of a metal bird that she'd never heard of before, in order to fly around the world? Why would they do that? Sure, in the wizarding world, they had some strange creatures and odd ways of travel, but this felt extreme even by wizarding standards. Maybe he was just teasing her if he noticed how ignorant she actually was when it came to the Muggle world; though she still couldn't convince herself that he would be the type to tease in such a way.

Taliesin made a mental note to ask around if she met anymore Muggle Borns when they got settled in.

For all his talking, he was an equally good listener when she posed her thoughts, and she couldn't help but laugh when he shared his similar story about flower sprouts, "Nanny Morgan is the best." she agreed, "My Governess, Madam Daaé, she was always the strict one. I'm pretty sure she could strike fear into a basilisk if she had the mind to. Even Nanny does what she says." she explained, "Madam always arranged all my lessons and extra tutors, and she is impossible to please. Nothing is ever perfect enough. I think that's why my parents like her teaching me, because they also never think anything I do is good enough."

Taliesin's parents, for lack of a better word, were cold people with impossible expectations to meet. Sometimes, Taliesin had a hard time believe they were even her parents with how different she was from them. She wasn't good at being still and aloof and critical. She wasn't poised and composed like her mother; if anything she was actually quite clumsy. Her father... honestly she wasn't even sure what he wanted from her. To be a boy, probably. Sometimes she wished she was with how poor she was at maintaining the prim and proper and dainty demeanor expected of her.

"My parents travel a lot too. Sometimes I go, if I'm expected to be in attendance. My mother prefers I stay behind though. I make a poor show most of the time for being a proper Pureblood lady. Mother won't take me if Madam isn't able to be there to make sure I do what I'm suppose to."

"My mom travels a lot, but my dad stays home with me." He shrugged softly, his father was a quiet man to say the very least. He works on his book most of the day when his wife isn't home for weeks, or he will alternate between spending time with her and between his book, Nick obviously came as a second. "Not that it makes much of a difference, he's not really much for talking." He looked outside the window after a moment, they probably weren't very far from Hogwarts, the loud chatters outside the wagon had started to calm down a bit, slowly morphing into the anxious quiet of most new students.

"But I do get what you mean! My dad wanted me to have all this private tutors and he wanted me to learn all this smart things that I couldn't even understand!" He gave a little sad chuckle at that. "I suppose both of us aren't very good at the whole pureblood thing." Since Nick was, by technicality at least, pureblood child. "Oh do you want some snacks? I've seen the lady with the cart when I got here, I'm sure we can share some stuff! What do you like? I love chocolate frogs!"

It sounded as though her own father and Nick's might've been cut from the same cloth; men of few words, but plenty of criticism. Though at least his father deigned to speak to him occasionally. Taliesin found it difficult to pinpoint exactly when the last time was that her father spoke to her directly, or what it was he might've said to her, "My father doesn't speak much to me either." she admitted.

"I suppose both of us aren't very good at the whole pureblood thing."

"I suppose not." she smiled sheepishly. Maybe, she hoped, that wouldn't matter so much, though; not at Hogwarts at least. Nanny had said there were children from all different blood status' and backgrounds, and that here, she could just let herself be Taliesin, not Taliesin Annwyn of the Ancient House of Annwyn. She'd been told children don't care about titles or background or blood... granted that directly contradicted everything Madam and Mother had said, but she needed to hold on to some hope. After all, Nick seemed like he might be in the same boat. At least that was a comfort knowing she wasn't alone in that regard.

"Maybe at school, you'll be able to understand easier. You could always ask the upperclassman, they might be able to explain things you don't understand. Or I can help if I've figured it out. Maybe if it doesn't feel like tutors or parents are looming over your shoulder, it won't feel so hard to understand."

At the suggestion of snack, Taliesin couldn't help but perk up a bit. If there was one sure thing, it was that she never missed an opportunity for a sweetie, "I like the chocoballs." she grinned, "Or chocolate frogs, or really chocolate anything. I like chocolate." she giggle, feeling some of the rigidity holding her spine and shoulders stiff as stone since the lad had come into the carriage finally ease a bit

Oh Nick smiled so brightly when she seemed to light up at the idea, it did make him feel so good inside that he could make someone, who so far he had assumed, was a bit withdrawn to actually enjoy a conversation and look enthusiastically about something. He never have had a friend before, but he already had it in his mind that he could never let his friends feel like they aren't loved by him from the moment they met. "Really? I love chocolate balls too!"

"I can get us some!" He dug into his pockets for the money his mother had allowed him to bring for the road. He grabbed a handful of it coins. "If you had to pick your favorite snack of all times, what would it be?"

He thought about his own answer for only a second. "I think mine would be licorice, oh! oh! Chocolate frogs! I changed my mind, chocolate frogs are my favorite of all times!" His mind was bouncing way too hard so his thoughts were so scattered, like a shower of ideas that floated around his head. "I can get you anything you want, my treat! No arguing!"

Taliesin grinned as he confirmed his own love of chocolate; clearly the lad had good taste in snacks, and Taliesin was finding it harder to keep still in her seat. It hadn't occurred to her before that there might've been snacks available on the train despite how long the ride was. As Nick dug through his pocket, she excitedly concidered his question, "Sugar quills! No, no, no, fudge flies!" she corrected, "I dunno," she giggled, "I like all snacks that taste good." the child grinned before a recollection bounced through her fizzing mind, "Oo! Wait!"

Whatever sense of propriety left that had been maintaining her composure crumbled as she hurriedly snatched up her bag that she'd brought along with her for the ride. Madam may have handed it over to her, but Nanny was always the one to pack her thing; and that always included a little snack if she was going on a longer journey. Considering what a big day it was, Taliesin had no reason to think the woman that doted on her wouldn't have sent her off without one last homemade treat, "Yes!" she cheered before she hurriedly jumped to her feet. Crossing the little space and plopping herself in the seat beside Nick, Taliesin presented the little tin in her hand, "If you insist on buying something, get whatever you like to share, and I'll share my Nanny's treats." she offered, prying off the tin's lid to reveal a modest assortment of miniature tarts.

"Sugar quills are delicious!" Nick squealed, matching her energy with such enthusiasm. He barely could sit still in his spot. Even less so when she sat down by her side. He leaned closer to her to stare at the little tin can. "Oh it smells nice! What are those?" He asked, pointing at the little treats inside. He hadn't seen those before.

"We can have a little picnic together! I'll get us some more stuff and then we can share!" He barely managed to get up in his excitement, already rushing to the door, and peaking his head out to look for the lady and her cart. He did find her eventually and slipped out for just a second. Nick wasn't sure what Taliesin would want to have so he picked a few different treats, including pumpkin treats that he used to have back at home.

He tried to be just as smooth coming back to their own seat, but like he had done before he even met Taliesin, he slammed face first into the door. But at least he wasn't harmed. "I got it!" He squealed when he pushed past the door and plopped back onto the seat.