Dallas waved his wand and the 14 trays lifted just up to his waist. "There we go, nice and easy." He started to walk, Thor trotting behind him, hoping to get a piece of something in those trays. Dallas, still holding his wand, grabbed another tray from the air and placed it about 30 feet away from the last one, walked about 6 feet into the forest, and tucked it behind a shrub. "Like that, so I can levitate them, can you can place them down, does that work for you?"

He wanted to make this as simple as possible. He liked to keep things organized, and so that he had a system, and every part of the system maximized its work. He would walk a distance, then Alice would put one down, they would be able to cover about over the distance of several soccer fields.

Alice and Dallas worked together to spread the trays. She liked Dallas, he was nice, and was organized. It was a nice change from the other adults at the school. Once it seemed as though all of the trays were spread out, she brushed her hands together, now dyed red from the blood. A few times she was threatened with a flash back, but she held herself from allowing her mind to go there. "There, all done. That was great! It's all set!"

She looked off into the horizon to see the sun setting. "I should really be getting back up to the castle. Dinner should be ready soon." She said. "Are you coming to dinner?" She asked

"Thank you very much!" Dallas said, when the last tray was put behind a good-sized rock. "I have a pumped back at the cottage if you want to wash up, I'll have to change my shirt, and then I'll walk you to the Great Hall." He promised himself that he would eat dinner for the first month he was here in the Great Hall, then he would start dining in his shack, just to keep things in check and make sure nothing creepy and crawling waltz onto the grounds while he gorged on potatoes.

"I'll start weaving that hat for you, I have a few different colored beads, what color suits your fancy?" He said, thinking of the style that would best sit on her hair and what would look best with the shape of her face. "You'll also have to tell me what color you want it." he said, glad to have something other than pouring himself over his planner during the night before he slept.

"You'll have to come visit me in the next few weeks, I'm working on a project, and I'm thinkin' you could help me out with it." Dallas hadn't told anyone about this yet. "I'm gonna try to count the unicorn population in the forest, would you be interested in that?" He had been studying unicorn lore on the fishing boat he worked on with his father during his free time, and he needed a witch to help him attract it.

The unicorn population in Scotland was going down, and he wanted to figure out why, and if he could manage to catalog the majority of the unicorns in the forest, he could figure out causes of death, and how long the life span is. Alice was smart enough, brave enough, and just perfect for the job. He would have to plan it out, of course, and it would take some time, especially since he had to wrangle that Kelpie tomorrow...

"I have a pumped back at the cottage if you want to wash up, I'll have to change my shirt, and then I'll walk you to the Great Hall."

Alice nodded. "That'd be great, thank you." She said, starting to skip back to his hut.

"I'll start weaving that hat for you, I have a few different colored beads, what color suits your fancy? ... You'll also have to tell me what color you want it."

Alice smiled excitedly. "I love light tan hats, but my favorite color is yellow. Could you make it with yellow beads on a light tan canvas?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"I'm gonna try to count the unicorn population in the forest, would you be interested in that?"

"I'd love to help! I've done extensive reading about unicorns since I arrived at Hogwarts." She said excitedly. "Have you thought about tagging them with paint, or an actual tag? That way, you can count them over a span of a few days, and not recount the same unicorn twice." She suggested.

"Light tan, yellow, got it." Dallas pulled a pencil from another pocket and scribbled it down on his notebook.

Dallas got excited as Alice gave him feedback on his unicorn idea. "Yes, right, but I don't wanna stain their hides, and I don't wanna hurt 'em. I've been looking at a rather advanced enchantment called a light ribbon, and it can be cast onto the unicorn's horn, so it changes the color of the horn, but it goes away after a long while, do you think that would work?"

Dallas liked plotting with Alice, she was younger, and had a much simpler idealistic approach. "I also need to find out where they gather, so I'll be hiking around in the woods for the next few weeks, sorry that you can't help me out with that though lass, too far, and it gets real dark, like night if you go far enough."

He had walked for quite a bit in the forest during his time as grounds keeper, and during a mid day hike, he found himself sprinting back towards the light away from an odd sound. He was scared himself, and he didn't want to bring a kid into it when he was terrified of the secrets the dark woods held. They then arrived back at the cottage, and Dallas pointed to the side of the shack, "Pump is back there," Dallas hopped into the small dwelling and put on a much cleaner, nicer flannel shirt.

He tightened a bolo tie around his collar's underside and stomped off his boots. "You ready to go?" he called.

"Yes, right, but I don't wanna stain their hides, and I don't wanna hurt 'em. I've been looking at a rather advanced enchantment called a light ribbon, and it can be cast onto the unicorn's horn, so it changes the color of the horn, but it goes away after a long while, do you think that would work?"

Alice nodded. "That is a much better idea. I'd hate to hurt the beautiful creatures." Alice then went over to the pump in which she cleaned the chicken blood from her hands, happy after their little excursion. After she cleaned her hands, Dallas came out in a different shirt and asked if she was ready to go. Alice took of Dallas's hat, and handed it to him. "Thank you for letting me borrowing it." She said with a smile. "That was very nice of you."

"No problem, chikadee." He said, taking the hat back and placing it on his head. “It was mighty fine of you to help me out today, that would have taken me until dark without your help.” Dallas smiled down at her, still getting used to her minuscule height. “Maybe I’ll make you a pair of stilts along with that hat.” He said, laughing. He hoped she wouldn’t take it as an insult to her height, but he couldn’t take it back now.

He was concerned about what he was about to do tomorrow, he’d get up bright and early so nobody was watching if something happened to him. Kelpies were vicious, and even though he had wrangled a few before, the ones in the Hogwarts Lake seemed to be the most vicious of all of the Kelpies he had ever had the displeasure to meet, this would be critical in establishing his superiority to the other sea-beasts.

“You’d have been the cat’s pajamas back in Texas, a girl your age who ain’t afraid of no bugs, or big birds, or blood, for that matter, people would go nuts just to meetch’a!” Dallas chuckled, tilting the brim of his hat upwards toward the glowing castle.

Alice smiled, walking up to the castle. She wasn't insecure about her height. she was quite happy about her height, and she never minded if people laughed. They walked up to the castle chatting a little, and Alice started to skip. She was in such a great mood, knowing that she made a new friend.

“You’d have been the cat’s pajamas back in Texas, a girl your age who ain’t afraid of no bugs, or big birds, or blood, for that matter, people would go nuts just to meetch’a!”

Alice giggled a little. "Thank you. I'll take that as a complement. I try to be a good sport about things. People like good sports." She explained with a smile.

"Well, that'll get you pretty far in life Miss Hunter, every body likes a good sport" He said with a tip of his hat as they approached the castle doors. Just to make a show, Dallas pulled out his ring of keys, locked, then unlocked the massive wooden entryway doors. "Your castle, milady." He smiled and bowed, opening the door for her.

He followed her into the entry way and turned into the Dining Hall. He tapped her on the shoulder. "Don't forget to drop by anytime you like, unless I've been eaten by a Kelpie, I'll be around." He smiled again, feeling rather smiley today. Alice Hunter was a wonderful girl, and pretty damn smart and brave too, that kid was going places.

Alice curtseyed, as he opened the door, and scurried in from the cold with a smile on her face. "This was fun, Dallas." She said, as she walked into the great hall. But before she made it in, she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around smiling. She looked back up at the very tall man and tilted her head.

"Don't forget to drop by anytime you like, unless I've been eaten by a Kelpie, I'll be around."

"Okay.  I will definitely take you up on that offer." She said with a smile. As she turned, waved, and then hurried into the Great Hall to join her peers.