To Be a Child

Casey was sitting against a tree trunk on the edge of the Forest, wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a warm sweatshirt against the cold. She was waiting for Alex, to help him be young again. She smiled to herself, and leaned her head back against the trunk, closing her eyes. It was really special to be able to revisit her childhood for someone else.

Alexander walks up in a black dress shirt and black dress pants with a blood red tie his long hair brushed to the side and hes wearing his signature overcoat with chaines looped through the sleaves and there is a skull clip on his tie. " hey casy" he smiles when he sees her and sits down next to her

Casey turned to smile at Alex. "Hey Alex." She raised an eyebrow at his clothes. "Nice skulls. Are these your street clothes that you don't mind getting dirty?" She whistled. "If it is, your family has more money than mine ever will. Anyway, onto climbing trees!" She stood up, rubbing her hands together and offered him a hand up. "First, know that if you can't find a low branch, you use your legs to push yourself up the tree trunk. Like this."
She turned to the tree behind them and jumped onto the trunk, gripping tightly with her arms and pulling her self up while her legs pushed from below. She easily shimmied up to thefirst branch, 15 feet up. "Come on and try it," she called down. "It takes a while to learn though and if you need to, we'll find a tree with low enough branches to use."

He looks up and swallows hard. "i really have to climb this to be a child? i-isnt there an easier method....?" he plays with his ring.

Casey leaned forward on her branch to look down at him. "Not if you don't want to. I'm just pulling stuff from my childhood. It's what I know. I just like it. I like heights. If you don't want to climb, we can find something else to do. What do you wanna do?" She swung down to hang from her knees from her branch, still looking at Alex.

he steps back frightened that she may hurt herself. "i-i dont r-really know...." he thinks. "i never really dod much... im quite unfamiliar to being a child"

Casey swung herself right side up and came down the tree. "Sorry I scared you. I do that all the time, and look. I'm on the ground now. Completely fine." She tapped one foot and considered what to play that was a very little kid things to do. Suddenly she grinned and poked him on the arm. "Tag, you're it!" She sprinted off through the trees, looking back over her shoulder to make sure he was chasing her.

He chases after her "hey wait up i dont understand!" the ring flies off his finger and he doesn't notice. He finally catches up and she notices his bare finger

Casey looks back and sees that Alex lost his ring. "Um, hey Alex? Don't freak out, but you've kind of, sort of, maybe lost your ring. DON'T FREAK OUT! Do you know the Summoning spell?"

Alex twitches and stares at his hand."m-my ring....."his hands shake as he fumbles for his wand but he drops to the gorund in shok "where could i have gone....that ring is my most prized posession..."

Casey cast an anxious glance at Alex, then raised her wand, concentrating hard on her mental picture of the ring. "The spell is 'Accio'. Accio Alex Bloodbayne's ring. Accio Alex Bloodbayne's ring. Accio Alex Bloodbayne's ring..." She repeated the spell over and over, her eyes constantly roving, searching for movement. Finally, she saw a flash of metal in the trees and ran over. She crouched, sweeping some leaves aside, and there was his ring. "Found it!" she called.

He picks it up anxiously and slips it onto his finger and sighs in relief "thank you so much... i dont know what id do if you couldn't find it" he forces himself to hug her. hes still trembling

Casey hugged him back, feeling him tremble. "Woah Alex, are you ok? I know it's important to you but... calm down, ok? YOu feel like you're about to have a heart attack or something." She sent calm through her palms and into his back, feeling it settle into him.

He sighs "im sorry but thats the only remembr=erance of my parents i have left... without tht id lose them." he slumps down on the leaves and hangs his head. he had made a complete arse of himself

Casey sat down next to Alex on the ground and put her arms around his shoulders. "It's ok. It's good to have a material reminder, but the real part of your parents is in your memories. In your head and your heart, not you hand. As long as you still love them, they're always with you in a way."

He sighs. "there are ashes in the ring...." his eyes fall on the black ring with the blood red stone. "under the stone..theres a compartment with ashes inside"

Casey's eyes widened. "Oh. Well, that is a bit different. But it's still not the part of them that matters. It's reading with your mom, it's your dad trying to take you to a Quidditch game. That's the kind of stuff you need to hold on to in the end. That's the stuff that matters. I can understand why you want to keep it safe though." She squezed him one last time, then took her arms away and simply sat next to her friend.

He stands up and puts the ring on a chain around his neck. "werent we playing a game?" he grins brightly at her. "i am unsure but i think i was winning" he laughs a little ".......i think"

Casey stood up, smiling. "Oh you poor, naive boy. No, you were not winning. We were playing tag and you haven't actually tagged me yet. Keep your ring close this time." With that, Casey took off into the woods again, darting around trees.

He gives chase and catches her "ha tag? yes i think thats the word" he takes off at top speed dodging trees and jumping over rocks and laughing hystarically

Casey skidded to a stop as Alex tagged her, turning around and taking off after him. She leaped over rocks like hurdles and hopped easily around trees. Her hair streamed out behind her as she laughed. Her arms pumped and she let her legs stretch out to their full extent, running full out as she hadn't in a while. She finally caught up to Alex, tackling him to the Forest floor. Blowing her hair out of her face whil laughing, she rolled over and lay next to him. "Tag, you're it," she said simply. "Trust me, it's even more fun with more people."

He blushes "oh really now? what else is there? this is such fun" he smiles and stands up dusting himself off

Casey grinned as she got up. "I'm glad you like it! Problem is, there's not much you can do with just two people..." She trailed off thoughtfully. "If you want, we could just go mess around in the Lake. That's always fun! I've done it before, I swear. The Giant Squid doesn't bother you."

Alexander smiles "that sounds interesting.. ok lets go." he takes his shirt off and hes perfectly chisled.

Casey grinned, raising an eyebrow. "You're on." She stripped off her shirt and skirt to stand there in a matching dark blue bra and underwear. Lucky I'm not wearing white, she thought, draping her shirt and skirt over a branch. "Race you?" She stood ready. "Three, two, one, GO!"
Casey took off at a full sprint, streaking towards the Lake and straight into its shallow waters. She splashed even deeper and dove, twisting happily underwater before resurfacing, throwing her soaked hair back and laughing.