Caught Up a Tree gathering beta

component found: mistletoe berries

Juniper pulled on her wellies. She layered herself in long sleeves and sweaters, wool socks and hat, house scarf to finish. She dug around her her trunk and pulled out a small pocket of sketching pencils and pens. Finally, she grabbed a large, deliciously empty notebook, and tucking it under her arm, headed for the Grounds.

Keeping a nature notebook was a habit she’d had since her early childhood. It began when she’d needed a place to keep all the flower and leaves she’d collected, feathers and bits of moss or insect wings… anything and everything that had piqued her curiosity. As she got older, she began sketching things too, and by the time she filled the last page it became a record of the forests around her house and her most precious moments and memories there. Juniper now knew those woods like the back of her hand. Collecting was how she learned; by discovering, examining and recording, at her own pace and according to her own whims, she had nearly every tree committed to memory. At least, she felt like she did.

Now, she had a whole new area to explore. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought to do this earlier. Gwen was right - she’d been too hung up on homework and her report card these first few months. Now that it was almost December, much of the plant and animal life would be dead, migrated or holed up at home, but that was okay. Sometimes that left you to notice what remained a little more clearly. And besides, everything on these grounds would be new to Juniper.

There was another reason to be out - gathering. Juniper was feeling good about Potions class, and she hoped to find and collect something she could brew in a potion later. She was thinking she could still find mistletoe, even as December approached and the temperatures were dropping. Mistletoe berries were an essential component of Antidote for Common Poisons, which had been recently covered. Juniper felt like she could successfully brew the antidote herself, and was eager to try brewing a potion on her own. And who knew, it might come in handy later.

It was a bleak and bitter afternoon. The sky hung empty and grey over the grounds, and a sharp little wind rattled the tree branches and made Juniper grateful for her warm clothing. The trees had all lost their leaves by now, and the branches were looking sparse and cold themselves. Juniper noted the conditions in her book and began her search. When she was out collecting, she was looking for opportunities, and she could stay focused on where her advantages were in even the bleakest conditions. Right now, the grey sky and sparsity let her see more clearly what was still there.

She wandered into a dense clump of trees where she was sheltered from the wind, keeping her eyes overhead. It didn’t take too long to find the mistletoe once she was in the right conditions. Mistletoe wasn’t especially common in Scotland, but here where it was sheltered from the wind and had plenty of tall trees to cling to, you could sometimes find a clump or two. It was much easier to spot in the leafless trees.

Now the hard part… getting it.

It was growing, unsurprisingly, near the tops of the tallest few trees. Juniper was no stranger to tree-climbing, but… still. She wondered for a moment if it was really worth it, or if she should just look around for something else… nettles, maybe, or flobberworms. Or if she should just attempt to sneak something from the Greenhouses instead.

She looked up the trees again. She thought about handling the fat, slimy flobberworms in Potions class. And she barely let the thought of the Greenhouses enter her mind before she realized she would be stealing from MacTavish, one of her favorite teachers.

Tree it was.

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