Legends....[Tony]

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

Shiloh sat at the head table, having finished her breakfast, and waited for Tony the gamekeeper to do the same. She was interested in what had been happening in the Forest, though she suspected it might have origins not of creature type. She was wondering if she could supply any 'help' in apprehending the thing, whether it be deemed human or other wise, just to get a good look at the new keeper the headmistress had suddenly hired.

Noticing Tony was seemingly finished, Shiloh tried to catch his attention to no avail since he was on the other end of the table. So she determined to capture him for a few minutes before classes started for the morning to try to pick his brain about any theories concerning the recent events.

Twenty minutes before the first class was set to begin, Shiloh finally got her chance and directed a question at Tony as she passed him.. "Hey! Do you think I could pick your brain for a minute, probably between classes?"

Not realizing exactly how what she had said could be taken, Shiloh waited for Tony to answer, and flashed him a big grin. "If ya think that'd be ok, I can come by after my charms class.

[Tony Dedrian]

Tony had finished a splendid breakfast, feeling great. He had recovered from his recent run in with the Sphinx-apottamus, and was pretty happy that he was able to provide useful information in it's eventual apprehension... capture... whatever. All he wanted to do now was get back to his little shack on the edge of the forest and-

"Holy sweet father in Heaven, where did you come from?! he said after she asked him if she can pick his brain. If human jaws were capable of stretching several feet, that would be absurd. Tony was absolutely dumbstruck. This girl was hot.

He crossed his arms, looking 'important', and nodded.

"Yeah, it was totally... something. I really don't know what. Looked sort of like a Chimera to me... but we can discuss this more at my hut after classes? I'll provide the dinner, drinks, and after food entertainment." he said, smirking at her.

He's got game? Perhaps. It all depends if this Angel of a woman accepted his proposal... and perhaps he wouldn't be so lonely in the bedchambers tonight.


[[OOC: Good God I've turned Tony into Rayne Summers. Fun times. >:3 ]]

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

Shiloh smiled at Tony, and answered his...um....intriguing question... " I assume I came from the same place as most everyone else here..... Unless you mean where I lived.." Shiloh smiled sweetly at her smart remark..

Reading into his suggestion of dinner and.....entertainment...... Shiloh felt the giddy rush she usually did when an amazing looking guy caught her attention.. Though she tried to play the 'hard to get' type usually. She started off toward her class, glancing back over her shoulder back at Tony and said. " Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Make sure of it.. I'm free after my Charms class. "

Shiloh put the hunk out of her mind, or at least attempted to through out Charms, and made her way back to the Great hall for lunch.

[[OOC; Sorry bout the short.... Brain fried....]]

[Tony Dedrian]

Tony watched her walk off, tilting his head to the side and nodding. "Hm. Not bad. Now bad at all." he turned and walked out the front doors, heading to the hut to get ready for his daily duties.

-----later-----

He returned to the Great Hall for a bit of lunch. He didn't want to eat a whole lot, usually, he just skips lunch, but he wanted to see the blonde again. He sat down in his spot, and waited for the lunch to appear, noticing Kaliana wasn't in her usual seat. Good, he'd get a more decent view. He awaited her arrival while lunch appeared, and looked over just in time to see her walk in. He was so tempted to whistle. He checked her out as she approached her seat, and distractedly ate his food, waiting for her to approach him.

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

Shiloh was waiting for Tony in the shadows of the Great hall, and when he approached the head table, she made her entrance. She caught his eye while she was walking and gave him a one sided grin, then turned her attention to the table and other professors looming in front of her.... Oh how she didn't want to have to put on the facade of eating lunch, how she wished she could be out in the chilled afternoon air... For she enjoyed the chill, she wished it would snow, no ice so she might try something she hadn't before... Such as ice skating across the lake's frozen ebony surface. What a rush that would be!!

After hurriedly scoffing down what she absolutely had to to keep her body in tip top shape, she glanced over at Tony, noticed he was still eating if ever more distracted in doing so. While waiting she engaged Kaliana in small talk just to pass the time, she really didn't like the older lady much she seemed like a snotty witch.

Glancing to see if Tony was done, she felt relief to learn that it seemed like he was, and tried to catch his attention. When that failed, she got up from the table and started making her way from the table, purposely walking with a pronounced swing in her step, and looked over her shoulder at the man she just knew was watching.....Along with probably most of the male audience student and professor alike... She said in a half sultry tone, "Well? Are we going to talk about what students have found in the Forest or are you just going to sit there with your tongue hanging to the floor?"

She smirked, because she knew that's exactly what he had been doing, checking her out.... And waited for him to affirm that they were in fact going to talk, or that he wanted nothing to do with her.

[Tony Dedrian]

Tony looked up and stuttered a bit at her tone. "I uh, yeah. I don't want to say anything around the students, so perhaps we could go to my place?" he asked, keeping his eyes locked on hers. He felt his heart skip a beat, and looked down at his unfinished lunch. He waved it off, knowing he didn't need anymore anyways, and stood, picking his grey duster up and putting it on, walking around the table and holding his arm out to her. "Shall we?" he asked, smiling shyly. Usually it was no problem for him to just pick up attractive women and whisk them off of their feet, but she was absolutely stunning, and was obviously attracted to him. He was repeating in his head OhmyGod-ohmyGod-ohmyGod as he awaited her to take his arm.

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

Shiloh looked at Tony's offered arm and smirked. "We shall." she said and took his arm.

As they made their way out of the castle and onto the grounds, she noticed a few snow flakes had begun to fall and also that the temperature had begun to drop considerably since she had been out earlier. Shivering a little because of the fact that even though she liked the freezing cold she hadn't expected it this soon after the relatively warm morning they had had, so she hadn't exactly dressed for the plummeting temperatures.
Shiloh tired to quicken the pace slightly, though when she looked over at Tony again she noticed a hitch in his step that hadn't been there before..

She wondered if it was because of an old injury or something worse. Knowing there was a great monster, or perhaps pissed off human of some sort in the woods and that Tony was the gamekeeper he would probably be the first to check it out. She had concern in her voice when she asked, " Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital wing instead?" She awaited his answer as she pulled him to a stop just as a slight flurry had started.

[Tony Dedrian]

Tony looked at Shiloh and immediately took off his duster, draping it over her shoulders. Since they were outside, he would be more comfortable talking about this. He looked over at her and smiled. "Yeah, about that. I was attacked by the thing, in the forest. Tabby reckons it's some kind of hellish cross between a Sphinx and a Manticore. A Sphinxicore or a Mantinx. I dunno... it messed up my leg pretty bad." he lifted his pant leg, showing three long, healed but scarred gashes traveled down his leg towards his ankle. "It wasn't as bad as it looks, though. Healed me up real fast." he dropped his pants leg and smiled as they continued to walk, putting an arm around her to secure the baggy duster that was draped on her shoulders.
"Anyways, not much more has been revealed on it. So far the one that has gotten closest to it was me." he said, supporting himself on her due to his leg. He smiled when they got to the hut, and he opened the door, a full blown snowstorm pouring onto the grounds.
"Here ya go. Come on in where it's warm." he said, letting her go in first.

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

Shiloh game Tony a smile of gratitude for the jacket, and listened as he told her about his run in with whatever had taken up residence in the forest. Darn, I hoped it had been of human decent, she thought to herself. A feeling of foreboding fell over her as they walked closer to his hut, and also closer to the entrance of the forest. She felt watched and the watcher felt distinctly human, no creature's stare had ever felt like that... Except of course her favored cat that had turned on her when her 'father' had shown up after years..

A chill ran across her skin as they got to the door and she said, "A cross between a Manticore and a Sphinx? What.......How did it do that to your leg? A manticore only has a scorpion's tail.. Right? Could you tell the sex? Or any distinguishing characteristics?"

As they made their way into the hut she handed him back his duster, though you could tell she was still very cold. Especially by the bluish tint on her arms that were now only covered with a thin t-shirt. She noticed a bed of some type of animal lying in one of the corners and a food bowl next to it, nervously she glanced around to see what it belonged to. Not wanting to distract their important conversation, Shiloh tried to push it out of her mind.

Shiloh smiled up at Tony as she sat in front of the fire, and asked, " So, would you mind telling me where the things are to make us tea before we start getting all serious again, or do you just conjure it? " She really preferred the 'old fashioned' type of tea that came from steeping bags in water, the conjured type just didn't cut it for her. She blushed righteously when she realized how 'bossy' she had sounded and thought, Oh well.. some guys like women who know what they want.

[Tony Dedrian]

Tony nodded, handing her the duster back so she could warm up.

"It's strange. That thing had claws that I would swear could cut through steel. Cut through my leg like butter, but thankfully, the wound was shallow enough to where they could extract the poison that Manticores are so popular for and heal it most of the way. These scars should vanish in a couple of weeks."

He plopped down on his bed (this being a one room hut), and reached underneath, pulling out a box of imported Tea. He took out a couple of bags and snapped his fingers, a fire coming up on the stove. He set a pot on the stove and filled it with water, turning to his cupboard and pulling out a couple of cups.

He turned and sat one in front of her.

"I love making the tea the muggle way. Makes it taste just right." he said, looking back at the stove. "The Sphinx-Manticore cross was female, as most Sphinxes are, due to immortality making mating and reproduction unnecessary. Of course, either this thing was forced to be bred, or was created through some rather distasteful Dark Magic. Possibly a type of alchemy or something of the sort." he dropped the tea bags in.

He looked at her, his eyes playing over her form, then back to her eyes.

"So, tell me your story. How did a specimen as fine as you become Charms Professor? You've got to have one hell of a brain to do so."

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

Shiloh smiled as he sat the cup in front of her and raised an eyebrow... Not many wizards agreed with the "muggle" way of things, usually preferring to just wave a wand and instant gratification. How spoiled people became.. After all, while they were kids they weren't allowed to do any magic. She again skimmed the rip in his jeans that traveled precariously close up the inside of his thigh. The blood drained from her face as she saw how deep some of them seemed.... Yeah, right, shallow......

She pulled herself to attention as he was explaining how and what he had encountered, and replied, "Yeah, butter... Doesn't seem like it had much resistance trying to take your leg off.. If it's some kind of hybrid, then that wouldn't necessarily mean that the thing would be female or immortal right??? Or do you think someone specifically mixed the worst of the two together? Alchemy....? Isn't that yours and this other professor's field of expertise? Who's to say, since you just kind of showed up, that you weren't the one creating this to give everyone a run for their money..?"

She noticed him checking her out and gave him the same treatment. Mmmmmm. Even with, or perhaps because of his battle scarred appearance he was yummy. Of course he looked like someone who used women and threw them out with the night's trash.. She had seen him around with some of the other female professors and he had gained that sort of reputation fast. Why was it he didn't seem that way now, with her?

" I was taken under the wing of the previous headmaster because of things that had happened in my past, and was a natural at charms, it just sort of fell into my lap once I made it through Hogwarts myself. " she explained. Then she looked at herself in the mirror that hung on the wall and examined herself.. Yeah, she knew she had what it took to get whatever she wanted.. But she looked at Tony's profile in the mirror and remembered just who he had been seen running around with.. Kaliana herself was one he had been chasing around the Forest not long before. She looked back at herself, the only difference between her and some of the other women was her blonde hair and her deep blue almost to the point of looking violet when she was passionate about something. She mused, " I usually get what I want when I want it, but I'm no different than any other woman here in fact there are better looking specimens at the castle right now. What's a looker like you doing holing up in a shack on some ancient castle? "

[Tony Dedrian]

He laughed. A looker? Like him? Now this was gold. He legitimately wanted to get to know this absolutely spicy woman, and she was actually full on hitting on him. Way to go, Tony. He opened his mouth to say something, but a loud rumble outside caused him to stand, having leapt across the room at almost lightning speed, his Auror reflexes coming into play almost as fast as a blink of an eye. He was at the door, opening it slightly, holding his weight against it as the wind and snow pounded at the door.
He wondered how Rubeus did it. A giant of a man, Tony actually spoke to Rubeus several times before taking this job, pretty much inheriting the shack while Rubeus retired somewhere in Norway, working with one of the Weasley boys. Something about Dragons. Either way, he was damn certain that Rubeus himself would have pissed himself at such a sound. He looked around at the edge of the forest through the blinding snow, across the old, unused pumpkin patch, and balked when he saw a pair of gleaming yellow eyes staring back at him. He groaned and aimed his wand, firing a curse in the direction of the eyes, but to no avail. They had gone.
After another moment, he shut the door, shivering from the cold, the sweat on his brow probably frozen solid... he sat back down at the table, eyes closed for a second, when a black and white tiger cat jumped into his lap, meowing a concerned meow. He ignored the cat for the moment, realizing just how close he was to the damned forest. He wasn't exactly safe out here either, and that meant Shiloh certainly wasn't.

All he managed to choke out was "Are you ok?", not knowing how she reacted to the sudden sound from outside, or even if she happened to look out the window and see what he saw. He was certain, however, that if she did see it, she would probably be as scared as he.

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

At the sound that seemed to shake the minute shack to it's core, Shiloh jumped near to the ceiling with a shocked yelp. She looked and saw that Tony was trying to keep the door from blowing off it's hinges while trying to send a spell in to the darkness, and fighting against every nerve in her body that was telling her to take the flight part of the fight or flight equation, she made her way over to the door and pressed all her weight against the door for what good it would do.

She tried to glance around his broad shoulders and catch a glimpse of whatever he had seen that would have made him send a spell it's why and instantly felt her blood drain to her toes at the sight she was met with, if only for a second. A gigantic form of a creature masked by shadows, and had glowing eyes the color of newly minted gold bars met her gaze head on then seemingly vanished before their eyes in a dark mist. On knees week with fear she allowed her body to sink to the floor still braced against the door trying to provide a minimal amount of support. As she felt the door swing fully closed she allowed her head to fall between her knees that were bent to her chest, in an attempt to find any semblance of the breath that had escaped her lungs since seeing the looming eyes between the trees.

As she heard him speak, she looked up and was thrown into a living nightmare. She felt as if a ghost had just walked through her and wrenched any living molecule out of her body. A cat! I should have realized with the bed on the floor.. But, one that looks just like the one who mauled me all those years ago? Why? She felt the thoughts clashing in her head as she spoke in a voice riddled with emotions, the most prominent of which was fear at that moment. " Tony... Um.. what is that? I mean, I know it's a cat, but what's it doing here?! She said as she bolted up on shaky knees and made a futile attempt to open the door in the middle of the hellish blizzard they were caught in the throes of, then went and sat on the bed which was the point in the room farthest from the four legged feline. She felt herself getting light headed as she heard the blood rushing in her ears, trying to fight it, she leaned heavily against the many pillows against headboard and waited.

[Tony Dedrian]

Cat? What cat? Cat?

Oh. Cat.

Tony looked down at DJ and scratched behind her ears, realizing that Shiloh was acting more scared about the cat than she was about the thing that could have mauled the hut. If that thing attacked... the Gamekeeper's Hut would become the Gamekeeper's Ruins in a hurry. Lay waste. Do it's killing thing. Tony was half tempted to brave the storm and go get Kaliana, but it was too damned cold...

He sat DJ on the floor. "Ok, this thing is obviously not deterred by the cold, and obviously, there's the problem that we're in a shack." he said, holding his hand out. "DJ walks around the school all the time anyways, so she'll be ok. Come on."

He was hellbent on getting out of the hut. This place was a deathtrap, and there was no way in Hell he was going to keep her here. He kept his hand held out, a slightly determined look in his eyes.

[Shiloh Alexis Mindel]

Shiloh laughed, " Ok Mr. Macho, where do you propose we go during this blizzard from hell? And exactly how do you propose we get there since Apparating on school grounds does not work?! You do realize that would mean we'd have to, oh.. I don't know.... go out in the storm with whatever was or is out there right?" her voice took on a sardonic tone as she looked at his outstretched hand. Still casting frightened glances toward the feline that was now roaming the hut she drove her body deeper into the bed. It wouldn't be so bad but the cat looked exactly like the one she'd once loved before her father had changed it and it had mauled her at such a young and impressionable age. She felt a chill run up her spine chased closely by a feeling of dread. Great, he's going to think I'm a clingy chick who can't stand up for herself, she thought angrily. Taking a steadying breath she picked up one of the pillows from the other side of the bed and placed it in her lap as a mental protective barrier between her and the cat.

Glancing at the clock on the wall she noticed it had been a little over an hour since the blizzard had begun and the fire was slowly dying, she assumed from lack of new firewood being placed in the hearth. Shivering slightly only partially cause of the cold she reached behind her to pull the blankets down so she could warm up. She put on a sarcastic smile as she again asked Tony about the cat's presence, " So, why is the cat here? I mean, I know she's yours, but that cat?" She took a breath then explained slightly, " I'm sorry, it's just that I used to have a cat that looked exactly like that one, and it turned on me when I was a child."