Lost in Thought (open)

[Silver Blackwood]

He'd already explored the forest and found the greenhouses, so Silver headed for the lake. He wanted to get to know the grounds, wanted to test it in a way, see for certain which area he'd choose as his own. Silver sat with his back against a tree, legs drawn up Indian-style, and opened his notebook, propping it against his knees. Within minutes he was lost in thought, quill hand scratching against the paper.

[Reed Brennan]

Reed had intended to escape from the watchful and rather over-protective brother of hers, but as soon as she turned around a tree, hoping to duck behind it away from his watchful eye, she tripped of something....or someone. Reed cursed under her breath, but was able to steady herself before hitting the ground. Reed looked back up the hill and was glad to see her brother was gone. "Sorry." She mumbled automatically. Reed blinked and looked to see who it was. "Oh, sorry." She said again with more enthusiasm. She hadn't recognized him, whoever he was, but that was probably only to be expected since she usually didn't recognize anyone.

[Silver Blackwood]

Silver's hand had shot across the page at the brief impact, leaving a streak of ink that strangely melded in with all the crossed-out and rewritten lines he'd been working on. He looked up at the girl--another girl, and managed a hesitant smile this time. "It's okay," he said. "My writing's a mess anyway."

[Reed Brennan]

Reed bit her lip. "Oh no! I'm so sorry. I ruined your writing. Here I'll fix it." She said pulling out her dingy old wand. She tapped the tip of her wand to the edge of the paper and muttered an incantation. The ink danced across the page rearranging it back to the letters that were formed. It was a useful spell for someone as ditzy as she was. "I'm Reed. And you are?" She asked looking at him expectantly.

[Silver Blackwood]

"Thanks," Silver said, looking down at the corrected page. He realized she'd asked his name and stammered, "Silver, call me Silver," stopping himself from any more when he raised his head again to look at the girl. He felt a moment of panic at realizing she'd just introduced herself and he couldn't remember her name. What was it, what was it? He didn't want to have to ask when she'd just told him. Reed. He let out a long breath of relief.

[Reed Brennan]

Reed tilted her head to the side. "Silver? That's an unusual name." She said. Reed bit down on her lip after the words came out. It wasn't meant to offend, but she usually just spoke without thinking about it and sometimes it made the things she say come out wrong. "I think that came out wrong..." She muttered under her breath. She always said things like that, but then again she usually had her brother there to cover it up.

[Silver Blackwood]

"No, it's fine," Silver said, forcibly dragging his gaze from the motion of teeth against her lip up to her eyes. "It's a nickname, anyway. My name is Sylvester. Just...no one calls me that but like, teachers." Silver looked at Reed, maybe trying to catch her eye so she'd see he wasn't offended, but maybe just trying to see what shade they were.

[Reed Brennan]

Reed kept her eyes on the ground. It looked soft enough, so she offered herself a seat across from Silver. She brought her eyes to his and any question whether he was offended or not was dissolved. "That's okay, I have a secret too." She said before leaning in slightly. "My name isn't really Reed." She sat straight up. "It's Mary Riley." She said her expression disgusted. "But that never stuck. Reed was something my brother would call me when we were three, so from there on it was always Reed. We sort of stopped putting Mary Riley on all of the forms." She said the name as if it carried a disease. "Thank god, what a horrid name!"

[Silver Blackwood]

"What? No, it's not horrid, it's nice," Silver argued lightly. "I mean, I like Reed, Reed is beautiful, but Mary Riley isn't bad..." And he was stammering like an idiot, a sadly common occurance. Silver shut his mouth for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts before speaking again. Or attempting to speak. He had only just realized how close Reed was, and he was momentarily distracted.

[Reed Brennan]

Reed made a face. "I was named after both of my grandmother's. Mary for my dad's and Riley for my mom's. They were horrible women, too. Bitter and crazy and lonely. I don't know why anyone would want to name their kid after people like that." She added a light laugh to her voice near the end.

[Silver Blackwood]

"Oh." Well it was easy to understand why she didn't like her name now. "I guess that's what nicknames are for," Silver said, his lips curving into a somewhat crooked smile. He wished that there was more he could say, but he was terrible at making conversation, and the moment silence hit, he was lost for words again.

[Reed Brennan]

"How long have you been here?" Reed asked to fill up the silence. She hated when conversations suddenly went silent and was grateful for her big mouth to fill it up. Reed picked a couple of pieces of grass and began weaving them, something she would always do as a child.

[Silver Blackwood]

"A few days," Silver said, then paused to actually think about it. "Five days," he corrected himself. "Almost a week." He watched Reed's hands for a moment, curious. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Are you making something?" It looked like she was, but he couldn't tell what it was.

[Reed Brennan]

Reed grinned and nodded. Her hands began working faster until it was finished. She held out her hand to show him the tiny grass doll in her palm. "It's easy. I can make pretty much any animal or small object." She remembered sitting in the grass making a small army of grass dolls before her brother came up and ruined them all. She was four and she cried for days.

[Silver Blackwood]

"Wow," Silver said, looking down at the tiny grass doll. "I could never do something like that." Dare had gotten all the hand-eye coordination between the two brothers, Silver was sure of it. He was half in awe of Reed's ability to create out of something so simple.