(1939-03-16) Digging for Treasure?
Details for Digging for Treasure?
Summary: Cillian digs a hole outside the Greenhouses.
Date: 1939-03-16
Location: Greenhouses
Plot: In Neverland's Shadow
Related:
Characters
CillianEliseMadelineChastity

There are spaces between the greenhouses, yes indeed seeing as they are all in a row and after brushing his lips over a coin and pocketing it, Cillian has made his way outdoors after lunch, last scene carrying a large canvas sack, his normal satchel, and another bulging sack of god only knows what as he lugs things along. Now, he can be found…his robes removed and tie set aside in a pile, with his shoes and socks as he's currently 'borrowed' a couple of shovels from the green houses and is working on digging a hole. He pauses to scratch over his eyepatch before going back to work, humming softly to himself.

Elise is there quickly. She'd been meaning to get in a bit of Quidditch practice, seeing as how the Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff game ended in a failure for her team - so she was on her broom, anyway. She flies in, keeping low to the ground (for her, low being six or seven feet), and hovers near him for a moment. She's dressed in her practice gear, though the goggles are currently propped atop her head instead of down over her eyes. "Cil," she says cheerfully. "Digging for treasure?" she teases.

Madeline doesn't have a broom - so she can't fly in, in style. No, she approaches in her usual manner, dashing and making abrupt turns. Wrong turns at one point, that put her face to face with two older students snogging under a tree. "Ummm. Sorry. Don't mind me!" the girl exclaims as she runs past.

Ugh. Yuck!

She shows up not too long after Elise - skidding as she comes to an abrupt stop on some loose soil, but managing not to lose her balance. "Hey."

Cayleigh comes around a corner at the tail end of the statement, dressed in her normal Hogwarts uniform, utilizing a belt at the waist, from which hangs her flute case. She stops, (changing pose), and stares a moment and the boy digging. She walks over, curious, and tilts her head, looking at the bag, and the two shovels. A small smile forms on her lips. "Do gatherings like this happen often?"

"Mousie, Maggie…" Cillian greets, pausing to look back over to Elise, blinking at her appearance. "Oh! Ye were practicing your things, you didn't have to come if you were busy. We've got an important task to be doin'…" He assures her before he continues digging. Then there's an older student on sight and he stops digging. "…for me and me friends they tend to be happenin' quite frequently, thank ye for askin'." Cue sweet smile.

Cayleigh's grin drops into a more guarded expression, blank. She looks back and forth between the bag, the hole, and Cillian. "You are burrying something. Killed someone's cat?"

"Oh, it's no bother, really," Elise says, finally bringing her broom down to land, and carefully propping it against the nearest wall. "I was just going to be out there all alone, anyway. This looks much more…" she blinks at Cayleigh, and a sweet smile identical to Cillian's appears on her lips. "…social," she finishes. "Hello, Madeline," she greets. "Hello, Cayleigh. What brings you this way?"

"It's important to turn the soil so things'll be ready for planting!" Madeline declares brightly at the appearance of the older student. She claims one of the shovels, and removing only her outer robes, begins digging into the soil.

"Killed someone's cat? Goodness no!" Madeline gasps. "…it was an owl. Obviously."

Cayleigh looks about. "May I see in the bag then?" Her eyes narrow slightly, "And hello Elise. Just a peak, if it's nothing bad… well, I'm not a prefect, am I?"

"Killed someone's…what the-are ye mad?" Cillian frowns at the idea before rolling his eyes and shaking his head before nodding to Elise and Madeleine. He takes a deep breath. "Why do ye want to be lookin' in the bag?" A pause. "Maggie…I did not kill an owl!" He squeaks and then stares at the side of a greenhouse as something shadowy seems to dart across/against the wall and is shaped like a rat. Just a shadow but his eyes go wide. "Elise! Get the books, keep 'em shut!" He nods towards the bag. Apparently, the bag is filled with children's books. He looks to Maggie. "Dig!"

Elise looks aghast at the idea of Cillian killing anything. But as soon as he gives her an order she leaps into action, snatching up the books and holding them tight to keep them shut. "Aye!" she says, a determined look on her face. She, too, saw the shadow, and a bit of fear creeps into her expression. "Will this work?" she asks rather breathlessly.

Madeline can't help but giggle at Cillian's reaction to her words. "I know you didn't, Cap'n! But apparently she doesn't! And I can't help but have a little bit of fun," the girl insists, as she continues digging with her shovel.

The shadow skittering by catches her attention for a moment, and Madeline frowns. That looks a bit like the-

Realizing she's stopped digging to start, she starts up again, frowning thoughtfully as she works.

Cayleigh 's right eyebrow arches, and she casually pulls out her wand. "May I, now that I know what is in the bag, ask why you are afraid, and what it is you are afraid of?" Her eyes dance about, trying to find, or track whatever it is that has the children panicking. "And Elise. Do try not to panic, it lowers intelligence almost as much as anger. Ever seen a panicky sheep? As liable to break its own legs as not… Perhaps I should get a professor."

Cillian just shrugs helplessly as he digs a bit more quickly, eyeing the greenhouse wall warily at the few little critter shaped shadows that bustle about. "I dun be knowin', Mousie…and yes, probably Madeline. I figure iffen we get the scariest of books out, ya know, wit the stories of giants and vampires outside…." He hesitates as he just stares at Cayleigh for a moment and closes his eyes before shaking his head and nodding towards the bags. "I've also brought a bit of ah, twine, yarn, to keep the books closed, we tie 'em, we toss 'em." Please ignore the giant shadow on the wall in the shape of a giant frog behind him. He looks back to Cayleigh. "We are not afraid and we're doin' our jobs, fair lady, m' sorry…we're going to get a wee bit dirty." Strained smile goes here.

"Oh, bother," Elise says crossly at Cayleigh's suggestion to get a professor. "I'm not panicking. And I'm not a sheep." She gives the older girl a scornful look and then grabs some of the twine and begins tying the books together. "Good thinking, Cil," she compliments him. "I hope this works." She casts a nervous glance at the shadows and works more quickly, her pale fingers fairly flying as she ties knots in the twine.

"HEY! That looks like my basilisk! But I thought it went back in the book?" Madeline muses with confusion. It was still wandering about? She finds herself staring again, then forces herself to dig some more, frowning at the pile of books. "Burying books outside - I dunno, Cap'n. We got something to wrap 'em up with, to protect them from water? Plastic sheets, or waxed paper, or something? I'd feel terrible if we ruined all these books."

Cayleigh smirks slightly, well, at least she's too irritated to be afraid now… good enough.

She walks over and conjures some canvas. "Will this work?" Her eyes shift quickly. "And what is that?" She squints at something a little distance off. Her head tilts to the other side.

"…ye saw a basilisk?" Cillian's voice goes a bit squeaky at that before he blinks owlishly and looks back to Elise. "Ye are not a sheep, its okay. And I hope so too." Then back to Madeline. "Well these are jest the personal books I was able to get from folks." Cillian tries to explain before Cayleigh is there, with canvas and his left eye twitches a bit in confusion before he looks back over to the other girls. "If ye want to wrap 'em up, ye best begin as quickly as possible. The main shadow, Peter, whatever his bloody name is…he always comes out when its dark. So outside be safer." He eyes the sky warily before quickly staring at the wall and taking a deep breath. "…Elise…" He eyes the frog. "I mean, Mousie…please tell me the princess and teh frog isn't in that bag." Yes, but it is.

News of the little blonde seeing a basilisk surprises Elise and she gives Madeline a wide-eyed look. "Wow," she whispers, impressed. "But the books are the least of our worries. They'll be fine, it's us that might —" Then she is, in fact, currently reaching for the very book that Cillian just asked about. "Here it is," she tells him. She turns her head to see what he's looking at and freezes when she takes in the size of the frog. "If we all hop on my broom I can probably get us out of here," she says. "Well… for a short distance, anyway." Glancing for a split second at the canvas Cayleigh conjures, she shakes her head. "That won't last long will it? What's the point?"

"Umm, yes. I thought I did. I think it was a basilisk. It was months ago - it was only about this big," Madeline holds her hands a few feet apart. "…Is that important?" She looks between the two other pirates, then looks at the frog on the wall. "…can they actually hurt us?" she asks uncertainly. "I mean - they're just shadows!"

"It doesn't matter, finish what you're doing, I'll try to protect you while you work." She frowns. "Elise, as he said, you're not a sheep. But if you're irritated at me, you won't be afraid, so I was shifting your focus. It worked, you started moving." She casts a Lumos at the shadow, an experiment. "Now, keep moving. As to the tarp, even temporary shelter can make a difference." She looks at cillian. "Do you mean Peter Pan? Are all of the shadows dangerous, or evil? Have you had any evidence that they are?"

"Not exactly harm but…they aren't the safest and dun worry luv, I wish we had our swords…" Cillian reassures Madeline before turning to Elise. "Aye, Mousie we could but…remember wit' the dragon, when it was bein' defeated, it went back in the book. And I dun tink The Shadow could get it back out-" Cillian begins to explain why running away wouldn't be the best of ideas really. Then Cayleigh casts her spell and his eyes widen as he just facepalms.

Its an oddity really. The frog in the shadows hops around a bit, as if going to do a ballet…pausing and then making as if brushing his teeth? Its almost comical as he hops over to the shadow profiles of the girl pirates, big exagerated kissy lips before hopping away - in mid hop however, there's a flash of light and then the shadows are gone. Where, nobody knows. But tis gone.

"Fairly important, Maggie," Elise tells the girl. "Do try to keep us informed, yeah? We're in this together." Without pausing her work of tying shut the books, she just rolls her eyes at Cayleigh, clearly unimpressed by the girl's reasoning. Then she blinks. "Wait… you can see the shadows?" She sends a significant look at Cillian. "Please stop giving me orders, anyway, Cayleigh, Cillian's my Captain, not you." And then the older girl casts the Lumos and the frog disappears just after making Elise recoil from its shadowy kissy-face. "What did you do that for?!" she demands. "Now we've no idea where it is!"

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't know," Madeline answers Elise, a little color sneaking onto her cheeks. "I mean - this was months ago I saw the basilisk, and we weren't even friends then, really!" she explains as she digs the hole a little bit deeper - and even wider. "Man. Burying an owl would be easier. Smaller hole."

…there's no accounting for Maddie's sense of humor, sometimes.

Cayleigh shrugs and cancels the spell. "Nox. I was just curious if they were corporeal shadows or not, based on his mention of the Pan."

Hole is suitably deep enough, and Cillian nods over to Madeline with a soft choke of a giggle. "That…should not have been funny." He announces before looking to Elise and holding out his hands for the first book, before pausing. "…leave the princess froggy book out there, please. We still have to find the bloody hoppy prince." He pouts a bit before nodding back to Madeline. "That's think enougn, s'only about 10 books, ye can wrap 'em up first iffen ye want. I didn't have time to get a chest." He admits before looking back to Cayleigh. "Its…a complicated ting. Really."

"Oh, well, in that case," Elise says to Madeline, "No worries." She blinks at the girl for a moment, and goes back to tying books closed. She's almost done. "Just keep away from my owl," she comments. Is that — was she — did Elise just join in on the morbid humor? Judging from the faint upward curl of her lips, she did. She gives Cayleigh a rather put-out look. "You could have asked," she points out. "Seeing as it's fairly obvious that we've been dealing with this for longer than you, it would be better to gather information than to experimentally cast spells at something you're totally ignorant of." She reaches for the last book and starts to tie it closed. "I will," she tells Cillian, regarding the Princess and the Frog. She takes careful note of the titles of the books as she passes them along to be placed in the hole. "How do you think we'll defeat the frog once it appears again?" She blushes a bit. "I'd rather not have to… to kiss it."

There seems to be no sound that follows the young blond haired girl as she cradles her books to her chest. Chastity glides along making her way towards the greenhouses, her head held high, her posture, pure prefection. She doesn't seem to notice the other students as she passes them she seems to be off in her own little world.

"Don't worry!" Madeline says brightly. "I'm fresh out of poisoned mice!" She beams at Elise, then looks for something to line the hole with - She'll use anything they have on hand - with the canvas Cayleigh conjured for the very top. She's setting a pair of books into place carefully - when she glances up to see Chastity gliding by. Probably not for the best to draw the girl's attention to their mass book burial…?

Cayleigh sighs, "You are correct, I suppose." She glances at Cillian. "If it comes down to it, I'm willing to kiss the frog. Why not." She looks flatly at Elise, then raises an eyebrow, "I haven't been rudely hostile for no reason, at least."

"Ye can't kiss the frog, m' sorry. Yer not part of me crew and I'm pretty sure The Shadow doesn't even know who ye are." Cillian offers apologetically to Cayleigh. "Also, please be mindful how ye speak to me crew, ye seem like a nice girl…but ye 'ave to understand. We've been havin' to suffer from this whole ting for most of the school years, we're stressed and sea weary. We understand yer older and ye be tinkin' ye know what to do but sometimes…ye 'ave to be more of a child to deal with these problems. Now, m' very sorry. Ye've seen the shadow. Yer sleep…" He trails off and then looks to Elise sadly and shakes his head before looking back to Cayleigh before noticing Chastity and he lifts a hand to wave to her as he's taking books and placing them in the hole. "…M' not sure who's goin' to 'ave to kiss it…"

"I never said you did," Elise says to Cayleigh, matching the girl's eyebrow with one of her own. She grins a little bit more at Madeline, and then follows the girl's line of sight to see Chastity walking by. She lays her finger against her lips, hoping the distracted-looking Griffindor won't be attracted to their slightly clandestine book-burying. When Cillian speaks, Elise gives him her attention, and nods a bit sadly, too. "You'll have some… strange dreams," she continues. "Marvelous, absolutely wonderful dreams. But the thing is, you won't want to wake up from them. It's hard." And looking closely at her, one can see that Elise has faint circles under her eyes. "It's a… a sort of temptation. To go there, and never come back. Once, I —" but she breaks off and shakes her head. "It's just at school, though. If you go home, you'll sleep better." Luckily, spring holiday is right around the corner.

Chastity gives a blink when she sees the movement of a wave out of the corner of her eye, she turns and now spots the group of students and cocks her head to one side. Picking each step properly she makes her way over to the group and looks down at the hole, "Oh dear, are we digging books up, or are we burying them?" She twists her pale lips a little and says, "If you are burying them, you should know that you can't grow book trees.." She gives a small smile and a tiny giggle, she thought the quip was funny.

"You really think someone's going to have to kiss it?" Madeline asks in an uncertain voice. "But if we do - and it turns into a prince… I don't want to /marry/ the frog prince. I mean… Well." The girl shrugs her shoulders. Those /wouldn't/ be marvelous and absolutely wonderful dreams at all. If she were stuck dreaming about the frog prince. She starts to giggle suddenly. "We should make Gunny kiss it," she suggests brightly.

Madeline beams brightly as Chastity approaches, greeting her with a cheery, "Hi Chastity! Oh, no. We're - uhh. It's mulch," she explains. … right.

Cayleigh sighs, and glances about while fingering her flute case. She walks over by the greenhouse, and sits against it, pulling out her flute, and checking it for signs of wear, before putting it to her lips, and droning out something akin to a Celtic lullaby.

"…oh great, now she be playin' her flute, like she couldn't at least offer to put some books into the hole." Cillian sighs and takes a deep breath before smiling softly at Chastitiy and nods slowly. "Well, ye never know what'll sprout from these books." A grin and then he looks back to Madeline. "Dun worry, ye dun 'ave to get married. I promise…" A pause. "…Gunny?!"

Chastity looks down into the hole and says, "You do know, that you could have done this a lot easier with magic right? I'm sure there's a very simple spell that would work wonderful." She opens up one of her books and starts to read but pauses, "Cillian, why on earth are you burying these books to begin with? Shouldn't they be up in a library somewhere?"

"Yes. /Gunny/," Madeline insists with a grin, looking at Cillian as she wedges a few more books into place.
"It's nice doing things by hand though, Chastity! I'm always doing stuff like this at home, on the farm. I mean - not usually books, mind, but… Well."

"Although technically… books are trees, since they are printed on paper, which is a refined form of wood, normally wood pulp. So yes, you could say, therefor, that books grow on trees. As to helping, I could, but I would probably be glowered at for holding one wrong… or something similar. If It must be lose lose. I choose to lose in a manner I can enjoy."

"Well, I dun be believin' in losing, only finding new chances to learn new tings and start over again." Cillian offers the advice to Cayleigh before looking back to Madeline and shaking his head slowly. "Well…we'll see if he be wantin' to kiss a frog." He makes an 'ick' face before looking over to Chastity. "Aye, we be doing tings by hand today so we dun get in trouble for usin' spells outside of class."

Elise is initially quiet at Chastity's arrival, and the back-and-forth between Cillian and Cayleigh and Madeline. She might have rolled her eyes again at Cayleigh's words here and there, but she kept her mouth shut. "I'm surprised a professor hasn't descended and tried to find out who conjured the canvass," she says quietly, glancing around.

Chastity wrinkles her nose and says, "Well I don't know why you'd want to get all dirty like that." She shakes her head and says, "It just seems really silly." She looks over at the sound of the flute playing then says, "It's getting late I should let you all finish your work."

"Getting dirty is fun!" Madeline insists, grinning at Chastity. "I mean - it's a shame the digging's already done. But you could help us fill it back in," she invites eagerly.

Cayleigh carefully puts her flute away, reattaching the case to her belt, and stands. "Bye for now. I think I'll go see if my friends are around." She then straightens, dusts off, and heads towards the castle.

Chastity gasps at Madi and shakes her head, "Oh no no no, that would be terribly unproper!" She shakes her head and says, "I should be getting back to the common room myself, I am still trying to get caught up in my lessons." She looks around and says, "I'll see you all later! Au revoir!" She gives a smile and a wave before heading back to the castle.

Cillian has stayed quiet through all the talking the girls do, quiet as can be as he shovels begins to shovel some dirt over the books in the hole, he looks very solemn and once he and his crew are alone once more, he exhales softly and shakes his head.

"Being dirty's not that bad," says Elise. "I like to be neat and clean, but when there's a purpose, like Quidditch, or Herbology, getting dirty can be fun." She nods in agreement with Madeline. She watches Cayleigh and then Chastity wander off, and then turns back to the others. Seeing Cillian shoveling dirt in, she extends her hand toward the shovel Madeline has. "Since you dug it, I'll fill in," she offers with a smile.

"Sure, if you wanna," Madeline agrees, handing the shovel over. She still frowns slightly to see them actually /burying/ books. It doesn't sit right with her! "So, umm. Are these books that stuff got out of? Or that it hasn't gotten out of yet?" she asks.

"Mostly, scariest kiddy books I could find, and pay people for in chocolate and the like. We want to be makin' sure iffen we're gonna face the shadows, its nothing too terrifyin'." Cillian tries to explain softly. "It breaks me heart though, I /like/ books…"

An excellent question, and Elise looks to Cillian for the answer, though she already has an inkling after seeing the frog. She takes the shovel, and a deep breath, and starts burying the books. "I know how you feel," she says a bit mournfully as the dirt thuds down. "But… it's not just us facing this. We have to protect the others. It's our fault, after all." She sighs and keeps shovelling.

"Wait - how's it our fault?" Madeline asks in surprise. It isn't /her/ fault! … is it? Did she cause that basilisk to get out, somehow? She'd just been reading the book, was all!

"We opened the book that was havin' the first shadow trapped in it." Cillian admits after a few moments. "Now there's many, he steals…well recruits new shadows from children's books." He shrugs helplessly and sighs as he shovels more dirt in. "But ye are safe Madeline. Except for probably yer dreams now. I'm sorry…they will be so good now…"
Cillian has disconnected.

"Not your fault," Elise says quickly. "Mine and Cillian's." She lets him clarify, and nods along with the explanation while she fills in the hole with more dirt. It's easier to do this than to dig. "So good you won't want to wake up," she sighs. "I'm… I'm afraid that one day I just won't," she says quietly. That would explain the circles under her eyes.

"Of course you will, Elise," Madeline says firmly. "I mean - you've got your housemates to wake you, and if they can't shake you awake, there's always the Professors! And they know what they're doing," she says with confidence.

Elise laughs a little bit. "That would never do," she teases.

"Exactly," Madeline agrees, flashing Elise a smile. "Really. We don't need to worry. We sleep in dorms with all sorts of other people, so if anything happens - everyone'll know. We'll be fine!" she insists confidently.

Elise nods. "I suppose so," she says, which isn't exactly an agreement. She falls silent for a while, and between them, they'll finish burying the books. After that, she'll bring up the topic of the frog prince, and try to brainstorm ideas for how to defeat it.

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