She was listening to the few students who had already piped up answers about the prints they were looking at. They seemed to be getting the first part of the question but they were missing what she had mean by characteristics.

"Actually when I asked for characteristics, I meant more of what type of human-like characteristics are associated with the animal that made this prints; things like patience, intelligence, anger...." That was her bad for not clarifying.

Human-like characteristics? She wondered for a moment and with a sigh glanced down at the prints again.

"Well...intelligence, anger, ability to swim...if you want to go literal with it the ability to walk on two feet." She shrugged and bit her lip a bit. "Anger can be one - and jealously. If it were really a duck then i know i was chased by them as a kid...they either like you or they don't." She shrugged a bit and then just looked up at the Professor.

The mud oozing between her toes made her start to giggle and nearly gag at the same time. She was a fan and not a fan of mud.

Taylor raised her hand, "Professor, they are most likely from a water fowl and they could be protective as well as angry and intelligent... depending on the situation that they are in." She sighed and blushed, growing silent again.

Wow, I am in class at the lake, this is so cool, and ichnomancy sounds so cool as well. She listened on and quickly realized they were most likely gonna be going in the lake. Her heart started to sky rocket, she felt so excited. She removed her outer robe and socks and shoes and headed closer to the lake where the professor was. She could not wait to see where this was going.

Ohhh...human characteristics. WHOOPS. Ella smiled sheepishly for a moment before giving the professor an apologetic look. At least now she could try again, yeah?

"Erm well birds can be social, intelligent, they can also be aggressive sometimes." Not all birds were though, at least as far as she knew.

Characteristics? West stuck his hand up and admitted, "I dunno professor but one of them should be confusion on account of it looks like whatever bird this was can't walk straight." He'd be paying attention to the actual answer though, because as he had said, he didn't know. Nope.

West took shoes and socks off and put them aside.

Mika just looked over to West when he had brought up confusion and nearly fell into a fit of laughter. Good grief she couldn't stop laughing.

Giggle. Giggle.

SNORT. Oh goodness was she embarrassed now.

Looking back at the prints she just laughed again. "You are absolutely right it can't walk in a straight line..." she whispered.

Violet nodded almost instantly when the Professor told them they could place their things down. She then also heard her tell them they could take off their robes, which Violet didn't object to. It wasn't until she heard her say for to them to take off their shoes and socks that Violet kind of froze. Stand barefoot...in mud? Oh...how terribly gross that would feel between her toes. Yuck!

But..Violet did as she was told, SLOWLY taking off her heels..then her socks.. OH it did feel as gross as she thought it would!

Squish, squish, squish.. was all she heard as she made her way back towards the group, trying to distract her mind from the disgusting feeling under her feet. She looked back at the Professor when she had asked them about a pair of foot prints on the ground not too far from them. Violet studied them for a moment, while thinking of the Professor's question at the same time.

She tilted her head recognizing those foot patterns. They looked ever so familiar. Violet gasped a little bit smiling, then went on to raise her hand. She said brightly,"Professor, if I am not mistaken, I do believe that those prints are the leavings of a bird indeed..Left from perhaps, a swan?" She then went on,"To which most characteristics I would place with these prints are that perhaps, it was maybe angry..or somehow stressed, because of the sudden change of direction in the prints..Maybe trying to evade danger?"

Laura looked at the Professor and smiled as she raised her hand again. "Well the animal walks on two legs just like a human, they have two eyes also." Laura wasn't sure if that was right or not but she was going to guess. "They also go to the toilet, even animals need to go to the toilet." Laura sighed, she was going of track here wasn't she.

Remove shoes and socks.

REMOVE SHOES AND SOCKS?

No thank you. Theo stood on the spot, tapping his foot very lightly on the ground. Course, if he was gonna get into trouble over it, he would probably cower over and take them off, but for now, he was taking a stand. No muddy sand was getting all up in HIS toes.

Onto the prints, his first instinct was dinosaur.

But when everyone else started answering, Theo nodded coolly. "Yeah, that is definitely a bird." He was clever, too. But human characeristics? How could you notice human characteristics from looking at a set of footprints? Theo looked around, cos he was CLEARLY missing something. Oh well, he would go for an obvious answer. "I guess they have toes like us." Yep.

Is that what she meant? Well then, that changed her answer completely. She looked down at the prints once again, her mouth still occupied with the chocolate frog.

Quite silently she eyed them, taking it all in. West was right. The bird had no sense of direction. Once she was done with that chocolate frog she spoke up. "I think we can rule out intelligence Professor. The bird doesn't even know where it's going." She stooped so she could get a closer look. "Maybe it was scared senseless by something else too?" Birds get scared. Now the only question was, scared by what?

"Maybe a bit ditzy too."

The Lake. They were going to the Lake. Alice hoped she could see the squid again. She rather admired his teeth, because they were incredibly sharp and all. Hers were going to be all pointy, too, one day. She swore it. And.. and mud. Oh. And they could take their shoes off, too? The lioness kicked off her school shoes and stockings, wiggling her toes into the mud. It was SQUISHY.

And now there were footprints, hmm?

Well, everyone had established that it was some kind of bird. Alice couldn't really deduct more than that. "Chickens can't walk straight," she pointed out helpfully. Maybe it was a chicken. "And they get scared easily, too."

Problem solved? SEEMED SO.

'Oh so that's what she wanted?' Alyssa thought to herself as Professor Elwood clarified the second part of the question. She listened as the others gave their answers and even though she knew that she would most likely be repeating some of the characteristics they had already mentioned, she raised her hand and gave her version.

"Professor this bird possesses intelligence because it seems to know where it's going. It looks like it has patience because we can see that it's not rushing around. It seems to have a purpose maybe in this case, it is looking for food." she paused to think of other possible traits.

"Um... Birds are diligent about cleanliness, because they are always preening themselves. They have a keen sense of eyesight like the Hawk or Eagle does. They like travelling in flocks, although I think in this case, this one may have got separated from his friends." Alysaa shook her sadly looking at the lone bird's foot prints in the sand.

Harvey arrived down by the lake and stood somewhat somewhere, he was not bothered where he stood as long as he didnt upset Ella with his presence. He then looked at the prints that the professor pointed at, he looked at them and instantly knew what animal they belonged to. Putting up his hand he answered "I think they belong to a bird or some kind.. an owl.. maybe" and their characteristics? "Umm they are winged animals with feathers and beaks." he said as he looked at the prints on the ground. He was right.. right? cause thats the kind of prints birds made in snow and stuff when he looked at them during the winter months. "They are intelligent as well as patient, some are even very observant" like hawks and eagles.. right?

Mo was one of the last out of the castle, mostly because he liked to look at everything along the way and because he was still thinking about how his tea answer should be right. Quite frustrating that it wasn't... if one was inclined to be frustrated, that was.

He paused beside West and gave him a shifty-eyed glance. "Great and powerful, East and West...Odessa. You ought to ask fro gifts before providing guidance. Seems fair."

Mo tugged off his shoes and placed them neatly on a stone before tucking his socks inside, and then he meandered over to study the footprints. He wasn't an expert on tracks, so he wouldn't hazard a guess other than to say that the lack of webbing in the print suggested it wasn't a water fowl... so not a duck, goose, or swan. He measured it out with his fingers.

"Definitely a bird, maybe a songbird or plover? Not a water bird, though. And I would say birds are..." He mused over the right words, picturing a bird in flight in his head before offering a subdued, "Intuitive. Spontaneous. Petty. Quarrelsome. Quick to fly away at first sign of hardship. Untethered, though... you know? Like free?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't Big Foot," Sierra said, raising her hand. She stared at the print tracks. What awkward feet. Poor animal. She couldn't even tell which direction the prints were traveling in. She guessed whatever it was was traveling from left to right, though. It just looked less awkward that way.

"Okay, let's go with...a duck, because you can see a faint trace of it's webs in the dirt, and the other parts look like the non-webbed part of their feet," she said. "As for characteristics, erm...let's go with confused, because I don't think the animal knew exactly where it was going. I think it was just walking all over the place." Maybe it was being chased...

...or maybe there were just too many ponds.

So it was clearly a duck as everyone else had already said,
He looked at the footprints for a moments and put his hand in the air. "I think this duck may have been dazed and confused. The footprints aren't line up right, not like how a duck would normally waddle I think." He proceeded to give a small demonstration of a duck waddle. "You know like that."

Ok so Hannah was at the lake, but she wasn't all that happy about it. Good things never came from the lake area. They had to take their shoes off? Didn't the professor know that there was dirt everywhere? Hannah did not simply go around bare foot you know... she was much too proper for all of that mess.

She relunctantly took off her shoes and craned her neck to see the set of prints that the professor was talking about. "Some type of bird, I'd say. As for characteristics I's say agile."

After arriving outside, Melanie placed her robes and her backpack by the tree. Take off their shoes and socks? She shrugged and held onto the tree for support as she pulled off one shoe, followed by the other then her socks. Right. This... was a weird feeling. She rejoined the other students as quickly as possible, trying to get used to the feeling of being outside barefoot.

Melanie blinked blankly as she stared at the tracks.

Well... she knew they were bird tracks, which everyone already said so what could she say about it? The Gryffindor just started to stare at the tracks, waiting for the lines to turn into words and give her an answer. It didn't happen. Melanie let out a little sigh and just turned her gaze to focus on the professor.

She supposed she'd just listen and hope no birds flying overhead would want to splatter people with... unwanted... stuff. And walking down here also made her hungry. She wondered if the professor had noodles to give out here like she had given out chocolate frogs. Because Melanie wouldn't mind eating those.

Needless to say, by the time Sky had arrived at the lake, Professor Elwood was moving on with the lesson. That was rude. Couldn't wait for the slow and out of breath, eh? Sky waited a moment for her breath to come back before slipping off her outer robes and placing them on top of her bag on the ground. Then she also slipped off her heels and tucked them out of sight under her robes. They were expensive, after all. And just for extra comfort, she undid her tie and placed it atop her robes before walking over to the footprints. Really? They were supposed to guess their human-like characteristics or whatever? Well, okay then. They looked like chicken prints so........

"Aggression?" Chickens were known for their aggressiveness, after all.

So... Aspen was here. Had she been here all along? Could YOU prove otherwise? She didn't think so. She was dressed in her typical black robes, nothing to make her stand out. Most people overlooked her, which worked for her, so... carry on, carry on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Lake time!!!

Lex tried her hardest to keep up with everyone that seemed just so much more eager than her to get to the lake. Before joining the others she dumped her bag on the ground closer to the grassy area and emptied the chocolate frogs into her hands once more. What? She'd need a snack while she pretended to learn. Her brain power didn't come cheap you know, it needed fuel, it needed SUGAR.

Next, she kicked off her shoes and wiggled out of her socks; her hands were full, that's why.

She walked into the others, loving the squishy feeling of the wet sand beneath her feet and got there in time to hear the Professor asking a question. Lex took a good look at the prints then scowled, just slightly disappointed. "I can tell you what didn't make them." Sigh. Maybe thinking the giant squid could walk on land was an odd idea afterall. "These weren't made by anything from the fish population," So no Mr. Squid, "And they aren't big enough for it to be something that's likely to eat any of us." Shame really...

Then her attention turned to nibbling on one of her chocolate frogs again.

While taking her shoes off, a young Gryffindor performed the art of being Gryffindor. It was like watching science. Or a circus. A scientific circus...

She took her shoes off like everyone else, her robes too, as she wondered about how important CLOTHES were to this Professor, and studied the footprints.

"Prey," was her answer. "Bartholomew Henry's lunch is the type of animal that was here. Therefore, prey animal and prey characteristics." Weak. Stupid. And probably in the belly of a large cephalopod.

Taking off his robe, Dylan folded it neatly before tucking it into his bag. Dropping it at the designated tree, he stepped out of his shoes and socks, putting those in a neat pile, as well. It was a tad strange for him not to be wearing his shoes...

Taking a look at the tracks...the Slytherin offered the answer most others had. "Bird tracks, ma'am...Flight?"

...but then she was clarifying.

Oh. Human-like characteristics...

Clearing his throat, Dylan smirked. "Well, there are TWO of them. That's pretty human-like." Taking a closer look, he shrugged. "They aren't rushed...The tracks are fully formed...So...Patience, like you mentioned?"

Also, when had Ravvie!Odessa shown up...?

Ahem.

Brows for her.

Those prints were DEFINITELY some kind of bird prints. They just had the shape that screamed rat with feathers. Birds were sort of gross. They carried disease around and were nasty animals, but a lot of people liked birds. Selina HAD to be missing the bird love or something. Even the Hufflepuff prefect had a bird. NASTY ANIMALS.

But she raised her hand to answer REGARDLESS of how she felt about the disease-carrying animals, "Its some type of bird, Professor. And they usually have anoying squaks or something." Annoying animals. They also bit you if you tried to feed them bread. WHY?!

OHHHHHHHH like human characteristics. Well, why didn't she say that? Here she was thinking that she wanted them to say disease infested or something.

"I think birds, personally, are dumb animals who carry disease." AND BITE YOU WHEN YOU GIVE THEM BREAD. Seriously, she was trying to be nice and they bit her. Ugh. DUMB ANIMAL.

Minerva set her things down by the tree. It was such a great day out and she couldn't help but be happy about being allowed to get rid of the robe. Pulling it off she set it on her bag then took off her shoes and socks. The grass felt good on her feet. Minerva loved how the grass felt between her toes.

Walking over to the group Minerva looked at the prints. Putting her hand up, "Professor, it looks like a bird prints, possibly a medium size by the feet, I wouldn't say that it spends much time in the water, because the feet does not seem to be webbed.As for intelligence, I don't think it's horribly dumb, but might not be all the smart either." Did that even sound right.. Minerva wasn't sure, but she was just guessing.

....

Aspen squinted at the Slytherin.

No, really, squinted.

In this scenario, she was the Giant Squid and the Slytherin Dylan was prey. She was sizing him up. Sizing his feet up. Sizing his brows up.

"You answer questions with questions." Just by the way. Everything with him ended in him not being sure.

She waited for him to ask, "I do?" and prove her point.