It was an absolutely beautiful day, in the thick of winter, but if you were unaware of what the calendar actually said, one could not be faulted for thinking it was mid April, or even later, around good ol' Mt. Greylock and the Ilvermorny school grounds. Given the choice to be inside rather than out, Stephen, a northern California native, would choose being outside every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

He had been out for the past two hours or so, practicing his spell casting. Yes, he knew there was a Dueling Club with fancy enchanted dummies that could dodge incoming spells, but there were also too many students in the area practicing as well. It was too loud and too bright, and honestly, just a little dangerous when the first years, especially, had their spells go off course or randomly hit any other person there to practice. Most memorably, he remembered a time when an upperclassman was practicing a spell split and there was a critical fail. No thank you. Been there, done that, and had the distinct displeasure of coughing up slugs for no other reason than being a studious fellow in the right place at the wrong time. He could get more done out here without all of the interference, and besides, it was where he operationally ended up doing most of his spell casting anyway because of broom racing. He was simply practicing in his real world theater.

As he was heading back to the castle for some food, he noticed a girl looking at the Snakewood tree. Now, a girl looking at the Snakewood tree, in and of itself, wasn't all that unusual, but it was the sustained, calculating manner in which she was doing it that most caught his attention. She had her attention fixed squarely on the canopy, and it made him wonder if her cat or some sort of pet may have climbed up it and was now having trouble getting back down.

His grandmother had a cat that loved to climb anything and everything, but it was the coming back down that it definitely did not like to do. That always amused him. A cat being afraid to climb down from a tree - utterly preposterous! He shook his head with a small grin and turned his attention back to the girl as he watched her watching the tree. Curiosity, as it might a cat that ill-advisedly decided to climb a tree it was afraid to climb back down, got the better of him and he decided to approach her. Maybe she needed some help.

He didn't want to scare her as her attention was definitely not on the goings on around her, so he cleared his throat quite loudly before speaking to her. He was standing about 10 feet behind her when he spoke. "Uhhhm, hello?" he said just a bit tentatively. "Do you need some help? Has your pet climbed, or slithered, or flown up into the tree and will not come back down? I'd be happy to help you get it down if you'd like. Have climbed many a tree in my time," and he chuckled as he craned his neck to see just what the heck she was looking at up in the thick canopy.

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Interacting with Kaya Rose Bennett, iNPC of @Linda Ramirez

He nodded, somewhat relieved over the fact that the curiosity the girl showed, whom he now knew to be named Kaya, was not due to some poor pet in distress. Past experience had taught him that even the most docile of pets sometimes turned into hissing, spitting, growling, biting, slippery, little demons when they found themselves in a stressful situation, made even moreso by the presence of some unknown person trying to manhandle them. Potential pet disaster and Hospital Wing visit averted. Cool.

"Hello, Kaya Rose Bennett. Pleasure to meet you. Tell me, does everyone call you Kaya Rose Bennett, or is Kaya an acceptable truncation?" and he grinned affably at her. "I am known, in my immediate circle of friends and family, as Stephen Nobler Schwartz, but I prefer to be called Stephen. And before you ask, the answer is a definitive no. There is no acceptable truncation to Stephen," and his grin grew wider as he quickly shook his head back and forth four times while waving his index finger in unison with his nods. His blue eyes were smiling the whole time, however.

"Ha! Yeah, I'm a Broom Racer. And you're a Seeker, eh? I have a friend who plays on the Quidditch Team. He had no use for broom racing at all when we started talking about our respective sports. He'll never convert to racing let alone love my sport, but I think I may have managed to move his absolute disdain for the sport into the mildy tolerable range. But you. Tell me about you. Have you ever caught the snitch in a game? Am I in the presence of a bona fide sports hero and do not even know it? If so, forgive my ignorance."

Looking from Kaya and back to the tree as he listened to her responses, Stephen studied it a little more closely than he ever had given her request for help in climbing it. "Now you have me wondering if there would be anything fascinating up there. Like what do you imagine? Salazar's wand somewhere in the canopy, disguised as a branch? Maybe housing a bird's nest that is frequently robbed of its eggs because well, you know - it's a Snakewood tree. Maybe tree snakes live up there."

Okay, so maybe North America was not as well known as Central and South America for its tree snake species, but Stephen knew darn good and well that rattlers could, and did, climb trees. His best friend, Michael, had nearly been bitten by one that way a few years ago when visiting his cousins in Arizona. Come to think of it, he didn't believe that he or Michael had climbed any trees since his friend had returned from Arizona and relayed that story.

Maybe now was time to change that.

"Absolutely I will help you," he enthused with quite a bit of excitement. "Do you have something in particular you would like me to do for you, or do you want to just start out by my bending over near the base of the trunk and you climb onto my back while reaching for the lowest limb you can reach that will hold your weight? You look slim so you should not be terribly heavy. What do you say? Want to give it a go and if that doesn't work out, we can move on to Plan B - just as soon as we think of it, that is?" and he laughed.

Truth was, Stephen already had a Plan B and a Plan C, but this was Kaya's show to run. She may have two or three plans of her own. Either way, he was game.

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Interacting with Kaya Rose Bennet, iNPC of @Linda Ramirez

"Well, we won't know until we find out, but it sounds like a solid plan to me," he affirmed while still looking at the tree before moving his smiling gaze back to Kaya. Language was a very imprecise instrument, at least American English was, so Kaya's suggestion that he could just lift her and she could find a branch to hold onto and then be able to climb up sounded reasonable enough. But how exactly did she envision it happening?

Then he began to do what he always did when faced with a problem to be solved; he began to conceptualize different interpretations and iterations of enacting a proposed solution. He did this daily, multiple times a day, so he was fairly quick with the process. The process did not always hit a home run first time up at bat, but even failures or discarded plans were instructive.

When Kaya said he could lift her with his hands, the picture it immediately put in his head had him bending down a bit, into a squat, so that she could essentially sit on his shoulder before he then stood back up. The position would be easier on him and more sustainable in the long run if she struggled to be able to reach a branch. She would be able to hold onto him and he would have hold of her. Sitting on his shoulder, she just might be able to reach one of the lower boughs, but if not, she could probably bring a leg up to his shoulder, while holding onto his head and a hand for balance and then reach up for one of the lower branches.

What he also pictured was some of the potentially comical side-effect possibilities. His hair being pushed down into his eyes, sometimes even being pulled in the moments when she thought her balance was too off and she might go down. Her wobbly knee maybe not-so-softly grazing his cheekbone or poking his eye as she shakily lifted her leg up and then tried to turn in such a way that both her feet were now planted firmly on his shoulder. There were many more queued up, but he shook his head, derailing that train of thought immediately.

"Okay, Kaya, snitch grabber extraordinaire, what's it going to be? We could do a straight lift up, boring but possibly effective if we are together tall enough to have you reach the target. There is the tried and true stirrup lift, made famous in every jail break movie known to man” and he clasped his hands together by interlacing his fingers and then mimed the ‘lifting part’, chuckling as he did so. “Or finally, there is the shoulder lift. I essentially squat and then you position yourself on my shoulder. Once I get back into a standing position, you may begin to climb me like a jungle gym, working to get yourself into a standing position with my shoulder essentially acting as your newly elevated, ground zero. You can hold my hands for balance until you can reach a limb if necessary.”

When he finished, he just looked at her for a few moments. The first option would be the easiest and the quickest, but he didn't think a waist lift would get her to the lowest branch, but he had definitely been wrong before. He could be here as well. “Lady’s choice. You tell me ‘Lift!’ and I say ‘How high?’”

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Interacting with Kaya Rose Bennett, iNPC of @Linda Ramirez

"Shoulder lift it shall be then," he affirmed enthusiastically as he moved closer to the tree. He began to circle the base of the trunk, looking up at the canopy as he did so. They had some pretty solid options for getting Kaya up there, so now it was just a matter of looking for the best place from which to attempt it. And truthfully, he had not actually looked at the backside of the tree. Maybe a branch dipped lower back there. If so, that, or any other number of factors might change the plan. As he came back around full circle, he noted to himself, really, but nonetheless articulated his thoughts outloud. "No other lower branches. Check."

He once again circumnavigated the base of the tree, but this time he was looking down for the safest place to get his footing amidst the few, large above ground roots. When he found the perfect spot, he started stomp-kicking some of the surface debris away so that he could make certain his sneaker treads made good contact with the ground. The very last thing he wanted was to have his foot slip and imperil Kaya in any way.

Satisfied he'd found a good spot with a sturdy looking branch above him, he finally looked back to her. "I'm ready when you are," and he beckoned her over. He had momentarily considered actually turning around and facing the tree trunk, but discarded the thought almost immediately. He had thought facing the tree might offer her more stability while climbing, and it may have, but there were other considerations that overrode that benefit.

First, if she did lose her balance and started to fall, he needed to have freedom of movement to either catch her, or failing that, help direct her fall to an area that would be safer. If he was facing the tree trunk, he was immediately blocked and that was not good. Second, in having his back to the trunk, basic physiology would have him leaning naturally forward and away from the large, hard, knobby roots that tangled themselves in spots around the base. If Kaya teetered for whatever reason, he could direct her fall out towards flatter, softer ground more easily, giving her a much safer landing area.

He lowered himself, getting into his squat position and rested his rump against the trunk for stability. He looked up to her, smiling a self-assured smile and patted his left shoulder, indicating that is where she should plant herself. "I want you, after you're seated, to grab both of my hands. I'll then raise myself up and when I've achieved a stable position, I want you to bring a leg up to my shoulder. That's going to be the most awkward and uncertain part of the whole endeavor, but I promise I will have you. Grab onto whatever helps you or makes you feel safe, even if it's my hair," and he chuckled before continuing, "but if you do grab my hair, all I ask is that you don't snatch me bald-headed. No one wants to have to see that," and he grinned at her, excited for a little adventure.

"Allrighty then. One Stephen Schwartz shoulder lift to the first story branch of the Ilvermorny Snakewood tree now going up! Climb aboard while space is still available!"

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Interacting with Kaya Rose Bennet, iNPC of @Linda Ramirez

"He wouldn't say she was as light as a feather, because, c'mon, a feather!, but he could definitely say her weight was light and not very noticeable. There was some expected awkwardness in getting her to a standing position, and yeah, there may have been some (mild) hair pulling somewhere and wobbling knees smacking into his head, but all in all, it went incredibly smoothly. She was on her way and he had not been snatched bald-headed. It was a definite win-win.

When he felt her feet begin to tip toe upon his shoulders, he knew she must have hold of a branch and was trying to lift herself up. He remained still until she was no longer on his shoulders and then he quickly turned around to see her successfully climbing onto the bottom bough, ready to catch her if she should fall.

Even though her legs looked to be scraping just a bit against the limb, and even though he thought he may have heard a delicate grunt as she pulled her herself up and over to straddle it, Kaya's smile was beaming and wide. It was hard to miss from his vantage point. He'd done his fair share of tree climbing in shorts as well and he almost never came away from the experience completely unscathed. Those little battle wounds were simply badges of honor as far as he was concerned, and truly, he never noticed them in the moments of his conquests.

Curious to know what she was seeing and whether it lived up to her expectations, he called out to her. "Well, how is it? What do you see? Please, pleeeeeeeze tell me the ghost of Salazar Slytherin is hovering about up there and scoping out branches to make another wand from the descendant of his first?" he teased her. "And can, or will you, go any higher?"

He thought about scrambling up there himself, but he did not want to intrude on her victory and reverie. She had only requested help; not a companion. If she wanted company, he felt certain she would ask.

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Interacting with Kaya Rose Bennett, iNPC of @Linda Ramirez