Woo's that? PV: River Dewlight

@Katrina Walker

The quick sound of a pen clicking could be heard through the girls dorms. There was none present, but one girl, with red curly hair cascading down her shoulders and over her grey jumper. River had been sitting at her desk for almost an hour, and all she had managed to do during that time, was to annoy herself with the continuous click, click, click, click...
She had given up on the entire concept of quills and ink, she thought it was so inconvenient compared to a normal pen. She’d still use a quill now and then, but today was a pen-sort of day.
Her cold grey eyes stared blankly at the yellow, clear sheet of parchment laid out over her wooden desk. She just didn’t know what to write. There was nothing that would make sense to her, and her motivation had left her a good while ago. Still, she just had to try, her conscience would not leave her alone unless she at least tried.
Finally, giving up her plan on writing this letter, she grabbed hold of the parchment, and brought her pen as she abruptly rose from her chair, and started heading for the exit from the common room. As she neared the door, a soft hoot sounded from her bedpost. “You’ve been such a pain to bring around lately, Hoot”, she said, looking stern at the little sunset coloured owl. He did a little impatient hop, and cocked his head. “Ugh fine, but promise me not to go flying off again would you?”, she shook her head and scoffed as the owl gracefully took off from the bedpost and landed on her left shoulder. The redhead turned around and walked out.

She passed students and professors in the corridors as she headed on in long strides. Her small feet hitting the floor with light taps. After a bit, she had reached the library, which was her current destination. If there was one place she could focus and let her creativity take over, it was here. There was something so safe about the atmosphere in this room, the way it was lit, and the way it smelled. Everything just made her feel like being productive.

She quickly walked along the many aisles of the library, her small fast footsteps could be heard echoing quietly between the shelves. She made her way to a nice little reading desk and sat down on the bench with her pen and parchment in hopes of finding something to write down. Sir-Little Hoot hopped down from her shoulder and danced around the table a little before he stopped and looked up at River. She gave him a little smile. To be honest, she didn’t even know if animals were allowed in the library, but at this point she didn’t really care all that much. He made her feel better, and that was enough for her to potentially be breaking some rules.
He broke eye contact and jumped swiftly off the table and continued through the air. River quickly got to her feet to look after where he went, but he quickly disappeared somewhere between the books. The ravenclaw sighed and shook her head. He better come back, I’m tired of running after him everywhere.
And sure enough, after a couple of minutes the little owl flew happily back and landed neatly on River’s narrow shoulders once more. She looked at him with a stern look to her eyes. «You know, if you don’t stop doing that I’ll have to get you a leash or something», she said and shook her head again with a slight chuckle.
When River lifted her gaze from her owl, she noticed a student standing there, looking over at her and Hoot.
«Uhm, hey?», she said and kept her eyes on the girl, wondering how long she’d been standing there, and why she hadn’t announced her arrival but simply kept quiet standing there. «You okay?», River asked her, and cocked her brows slightly.

River watched the girl cautiously as she stepped a little closer and explained her worn down look. River knew that feeling, sleeping was never something she found easy, all those thoughts wiring up around in her head kept her up for hours upon hours. Not that getting any sleep would help her appearance-wise at all. The sickly pale skin, ice cold eyes with dark circles making her look tired no matter how much sleep she’d gotten. They never went away, and to be honest, River couldn’t care less about her looks. The only thing about her that made her look a little less dead was her flaming red, curly hair that rippled down her narrow shoulders.
It was the same with her clothes. They weren’t dirty or torn or anything, but she didn’t spend ages planning her outfits, and would usually pick the first clean jumper and denim pants to slip on. Her clothes covered her thin frame well, and her small hands were warmly tucked into the overly long sleeves on her jumper.

The girl stepped up and glanced at River as she began petting Hoot. A part of the ravenclaw wanted to lash out with defensive words, warning the girl to keep her distance and not interfere. She managed to keep her cool, on the outside at least. It was a bad day to catch River on, she wasn’t in a good mood, but she was still determined to leave an alright impression. The girl introduced herself, «River», the ravenclaw responded quickly, and turned back to the table looking down onto her little piece of parchment. A moment passed before her hand quickly grabbed hold of the paper and crumpled it up slowly. She dropped it lazily into a nearby trashcan and let her stern gaze rest on the tabletop for a moment.
The little owl on the desk cocked his head curiously up at the girl in front of him. He did a little hop to the left and suddenly, with a bustle he leaped off the edge and landed on a nearby shelf looking down at what had interrupted his cuddles. A cat had managed to jump up onto the desk without warning, as cats do.
River looked up confused as to what had caused the mild disturbance and let a quiet scoff escape her lips. Katrina seemed very familiar with the cat River understood from her first reaction to the animals appearance. «I don’t think cats are allowed on the tables» , River said coldly, not taking her eyes off the empty parchment on the desk. The owl sent a glare down upon the cat as he sat perched on top of a high shelf above them.

River listened to the girl speak of the cat without raising her eyes to look at them. She kept them staring at the paper on the wood before her. Boomerang was the cats name, she pondered to how in the world that name came to be. Not that her owls name was too much better either.
After Katrina had asked the cat to go to her room, River could hear the light footsteps of the cat grow faint as it clearly made its way out of their position. The ravenclaw glanced up at the girl as she moved over and found a seat by the table, not far away from where River was hunched over the desk.
River was good at reading people, at least usually when she was in a good mood. Now though, her mind was swirling around like a hurricane, but at the same time she didn’t have the concentration to ponder on any of the thoughts that popped up in her mind. All the words she had previously written on the parchment had just begun swimming about, creating stupid questions of which River knew she’d never get answers to.
From the quick glance at Katrina, River gathered that she was not in the best mood either. Perhaps the dark of winter was making everyone sad, or tired for that sake. River had for sure started longing for the summer sun to peak out for a long time now, even though her fragile dhampir skin could not take it all that well, she still missed the bright days and sun-lit rooms.
As the cat had made its way to somewhere else, the little owl dared to flutter down from its spot up on the shelves and landed carefully in front of the other girl. He did a little hop and cocked his head as he looked up at her, clearly understanding she was not all okay. He had a soft heart, River knew this very well. He was a good judge of personality too, and would carefully pick those he got involved with. «Come here Hoot, don’t bother the girl» , the redhead said and nodded carefully toward the two of them. Hoot didn’t budge, he only sent River a still look before turning back to the girl. «I apologize, he gets like this sometimes» , she added and gave Katrina a quick apologetic smile. Whether the smile was genuine or not River didn’t really know herself.

@Katrina Walker

River’s eyes landed on the little owl sitting nicely on the tabletop in front of her. He knew he was cute, and he knew how to use it to his advantage. Sometimes though, he overestimated his intimidation skills and doesn’t make a good guard-owl that is for sure. «Boomerang huh, that your cat?», River asked the girl quietly and nodded in the direction of which the cat had made his leave. He was cute too, but River hadn’t always gotten along too well with cats. Bot owls either for that sake, but Hoot was an exception. She reached to the back of her neck and felt the scar from that one crazy time in the owlery. It hadn’t ended well for any of the students involved, but it had cost River a trip to the infirmary. River had always loved animals, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she always got along with all of them.
River looked up at the girl as Hoot was trying to make his little cheery dance-moves. She suddenly realized she should probably have introduced herself. It’s only polite when the other person has already, «I’m River by the way», she said, and did her best to put on a kind smile. «So, what brings you to the library?», she asked soon after, hoping to escape some of the slightly awkward atmosphere that surrounded them as they sat there in the quiet library.