Click [Closed]

Whenever he clicked it would do an action in correspondence with his gesture. They were simple gestures, gestures that were not all-that-revealing to what he wanted the little goat to do, but it was steadfast in its knowledge and loyalty. Whenever he'd make a small circle with his hand, it'd trot one way, and whenever he'd flick his wrist out from himself like a disdained conductor, the goat would let out a small hop. It was things he'd tried for the sake of herding, with a bit of entertainment mixed in, a few gestures to make sure he was not normal. Rohan clicked his tongue thrice, and the goat stood in place, looking up at him like a puppy, its stumpy tail wagging.

The boy zipped up his North Face to a brisk wind and rubbed his hands together exaggeratedly, coughing and blowing into them. In this, his eyes traced the scenery, the trees that surrounded them at a respectable distance, the clearing dusted with foliage. The foliage was not tall enough to hide any animals worth addressing, but the trees; they were ecosystems. He placed his tongue in his cheek, gliding it across the inside of his mouth as his head turned to correspond, to scan the sea of birds lost in the green shadows of spring leaves. He coughed again. A bird afar flapped its wings with an indignant response, a dark crow with shining eyes.

He looked at it. It looked at him. And in that instant, with a slow movement of his arm, he drew it up, and flicked his hand to the right.

It didn't move. It mocked him with a sharp caw, and fluttered away.

"Dobber..." Rohan muttered to himself, and he looked back down at his goat, still wagging its small tale. All at once, he bend down and patted its soft head. "You're a mate, eh?" He grinned. "Yes y'are, Macbeth."

This school was strange. Such a beautiful landscape, gorgeous mountains, breathtaking scenery, and yet the school was borderlining ugly, standing out against the green and brown shades the earth had painted with, creating a stunning backdrop for a less-than-stunning place. Rosebury, the small town outside of the school, was not quite as terrible, but it still stood out against the natural landmarks of the area. The moment Ria had settled into her dorm, she had stepped outside and wandered away from the buildings, determined to discover the lay of the land instead of navigating the school.

From the dorm window, she had seen a line of trees edging the campus, a messy wall that was refreshing in its natural chaos. The girl took a deep breath of fresh air as she stepped into the trees. Sounds reached her ears, but she was more focused on her feet and how she placed them, the feel of the ground beneath her feet, a carpet of pine needles and moss and damp leaves preventing her from really feeling what might be below. Breathing in slowly, she paused in her walking and closed her eyes. All she could hear was the pounding of her blood in her ears. When she opened her eyes again, she smiled and continued through the trees.

After walking for ten minutes, Ria noticed the trees beginning to thin slightly. She approached a clearing. In the clearing, she could see a boy talking to...a goat? As she stepped forward, the girl forgot to watch her feet and listen to the earth, curiosity driving her onward, staring hard at the boy and what appeared to be his pet goat. Just before she came into view, she tripped on a root. Heeart pounding, she attempted to catch herself on one of the trees, but succeeded only in falling backwards, landing flat on her back and getting the wind knocked out of her. She lay there for a moment, gasping for air with her hair splayed around her on the forest floor.

When the girl fell, it was not Rohan who went to investigate. He did turn, looking over in the direction silently, but Macbeth was the one who took the opportunity to see what happened. He galloped over, hopping to the cluster of trees, and when he arrived beside her he just indulged in hopping in place, as if to shout: 'I found it, I found it!' To which Rohan smiled, but stayed in place, placing his cracked hands in his pockets. Who was spying on him?

Embarrassed, Ria could feel her cheeks warming up as she scrambled to push herself into a standing position. She must have looked a proper mess now, dirt on her jacket and twigs in her hair, twigs that she quickly reached up and started to pick out. The goat had run over and was now hopping in place, yet its owner, the boy across the clearing, hadn't moved, simply watching her. She couldn't read the expression on his face and began to worry she had interrupted something.

"I'm so sorry," she said breathlessly, her words spilling out in a rush. "I didn't mean to interrupt anything. I was just going for a walk and I tried to pass without disturbing you, but I tripped, so now I'm here. I'm sorry."

As he got a good look at her face, and the fact that was was a girl, the boy seemed to brighten. He clicked his tongue, to which the goat galloped back gleefully. "No, no," the Scottish boy said, rubbing the back of his neck. "No no, it's well barry--"

He seemed to become distracted again when his goat seemed to be sidetracked by a zipping moth. It hopped in an opposite direction from the boy. He turned his gaze from the girl for a moment, shouting, "Get over here, Macbeth, you devil," and stepping forward towards the goat. It seemed to snap out of its own distraction to rejoin Rohan. He continued to step forward, horever, toward the girl, swiping his bangs inconspicuously. "Y'all right there?"

Ria watched the interaction between the boy and his goat, eyes still wide. Was the goat just a good pet or did his gift have to do with controlling the goat? Her attention refocused as he spoke to her. His accent was strong and she had to get herself to listen to the words instead of the lilt of how he spoke. She smiled weakly at him, glancing down before nodding at him.
"I'm okay, thank you," she told him, pushing aside her shyness to step forward and extend a hand. It was something her father had taught her when she was young, and she'd held onto it. "My name's Ria. What's yours?"

Rohan accepted the hand gesture, slapping his palm into hers with a strong shake. His smile was cocked to one side, and he gave a sturdy handshake before dropping his and returning it to his pocket. "Rohan," he answered. "I'm kinda new to this place, never been t'America. It's not much different than Scotland, however." He looked down to Macbeth, whose ears twitched with excitement. It stayed in place, however, looking around, possibly for the moth. "This is Macbeth. He's a bit of a goon. 'e's Scottish too."

The girl realized what his accent was when he said Scotland, and she kicked herself mentally for having not recognized it. She had seen plenty of movies with Scottish actors. It had always been a fascinating way of speaking to her, although she wasn't sure the people would agree, and so she kept this to herself.

"Did you say his name was Macbeth?" Ria couldn't help but laugh at this. Wasn't the word forbidden to say? Or was that something else? "Well, he's a cute fella. Is he your pet?"

"Yih. Like Hamlet's used for small pigs all the time, I figured Macbeth would be a good name for a small goat." He looked down and back up, into her eyes, giving a cool smirk and a huff of breath. "It's Shakespeare's Scotland play, s'I thought it was fittin'."

Pet? "I s'pose he's a pet," remarked Rohan, scratching his head. "I had a lot of goats back home. He's a little runt we brought to practice my power."

Ria nodded in agreement; it fit the small goat very well, she thought, looking at the creature again. It was rather smaller than she thought goats typically were, but she had never really been around goats. She could be entirely mistaken. The girl shrugged it off as she looked back up at Rohan.

Her head tilted when he mentioned his power, her curiosity coming back full force. She hadn't yet met anyone else and thus had no gauge for knowing what types of powers she would find at this school. Hoping she wasn't overstepping any boundaries, Ria asked, "And what is your power?" Obviously, it did have something to do with the goat, just as she had guessed.

As she asked a question, the question Rohan had been expecting from where the conversation was going, he gave a deep grin. "Mind control," he said rather nonchalantly. "I'm a herder, it helps the business a lot." He hadn't tried it on humans very much, except to get away from the Edinburgh gang. He didn't know how those thugs ended up, whether or not they were still walking around aimlessly, waiting for their master to give them a command. He just told them to fuck off, and they fucked right off.

Mind control? Suddenly, Ria felt vulnerable and insignificant. Were other powers at the school like that? Powers she thought of as Big Powers that could be used to manipulate other people? She eyed Rohan closely for a moment, unsure of whether this should change the way she acted around him, but she imagined that if he had any reason to do something to her, he would've done it already. Besides, she wasn't doing anything wrong or antagonistic; she was fine.

"I'm sure it helps a lot," she offered, glancing at Macbeth again. With a slight grin, she looked up at the boy. "I bet you don't need any dogs to help."

"I 'ad one," he said. "She was an old burd, though. Ginger was her name, she was more gray than'at." Without warning, he bumped her on the shoulder and took her hand. "Come on, I'll walk you home. What's your name again, I'm shite at names." He began walking, it not coming across his mind that she could have been in the middle of something.

A jolt ran through her when the boy grabbed her hand and started leading her away. She had come out here to... to... Ria couldn't remember what she had come here to do anymore. There was a reason, she knew, but having met Rohan and his pet goat, Macbeth, had driven everything about herself from her mind. For a moment, she had forgotten her name, her mouth floundering as she tried to remember, falling in step beside the boy.

"R-Ria," she finally managed to say. She wanted to tell him that she was fine out here and she could walk herself back, but at this point, she wasn't sure she knew the way back. The earth below her called to her, and she suddenly remembered the reason she had come here.

"Wait, one moment," she told Rohan, stopping beside a tree. Without further explanation, the girl untied her shoes, slipping them off followed by her socks, which she tucked into the shoes before continuing to walk, now barefoot. She could feel the ground below her better this way.

Rohan watched her take off her shoes with more than enough confusion. Scenarios skated through his head as to why she'd do that, and one made it to fruition, made it to be said as he looked at her strangely and said, "You blind or something?" It definitely wasn't the most intelligent thing he'd ever said, but he was trying to process something he didn't expect. He cleared his throat and didn't regain his grip on her hand. Then it'd seem too intimate, he decided. Before it just was to lead her along, to be cool and impulsive.