Second Task -- Molly Weasley

[Deleted]

Hermione Granger stood in the center of the tent with the three Champions.  She did not envy what they had to face today, going through the four arenas, each so different from the other.  "Welcome Champions," she finally said, gesturing for them to gather around.  "Today you'll be able to see just how much your magical creature has come to trust you over the past month.  You'll be taking them through three arenas, each ones terrain and climate vastly different from the last.  If you successfully get them through the three arenas, you'll arrive to their natural habitats.  Your task is to get the jewel that's been hidden in their nests - let's hope that you've gained their trust."  

After Elias completed the Second Task, Hermione came back in, turning towards Molly Weasley, the Hogwarts champion.  "Ms. Weasley, you're next. Please take your diricawl and wait for the sound of the cannon.  Good luck," she said, giving her a pat on her shoulder as she left the tent - she would be back for one final time once she had gotten through the arenas.  A few minutes past, then she gave the signal.

boom.


@annelise , please post your introduction.  It needs to be 250+ words, and must be posted by Monday, May 22nd at 1:01am EST

[Deleted]

The Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament was about to begin and Anna stood in the Champions Tent, waiting to be told what she would be doing today. She didn’t speak to the other two Champions, not wanting to give any outward sign of how nervous she was. Hopefully this task wouldn’t be worse than the maze. As she waited for someone- most likely her Aunt Hermione, the Minister of Magic- to come, Anna quickly went through everything she studied since she was introduced to Dodgson. She knew him and he trusted her, she was certain of it. So whatever was about to happen during this task, at least she wouldn’t be alone, and hopefully she would be able to work well with her bird.

After what seemed like hours of waiting, the Minister of Magic was finally there. Anna watched her closely, listening carefully to everything she said as she described the upcoming task. They would be going through three arenas with their creature, protecting them, and then hopefully make it to their natural habitat where they were supposed to get a jewel from their nests. Anna nodded slowly as she thought over the idea in her head. This didn’t sound too bad. Of course, there were sure to be creatures they would have to pass in all of these arenas, or some dangerous plants or something. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called a task.

Elias went first. Apparently they were taking turns. Well, that in and of itself was a relief to Anna, though she was sure that speed would somehow make a difference in this task. Perhaps they would time how long it took you to make it through? She watched her aunt leave the tent and moved to sit on a nearby stool, trying to think through all the possibilities as she waited. Anna nodded to Elias as he left, a response to his nod at her and Emile. He seemed like a pretty good sport about all this, which was nice.

Then the waiting game. Anna hated this part. Granted, there really hadn’t been any waiting with the maze, but she hated waiting in general since she was not a particularly patient person. She couldn’t hear anything outside the tent and there wasn’t anything in here she could study- such as books or parchments- so Anna contented herself by thinking about the spells she could use to protect Dodgson once inside the arena herself. It was a consolation to her that he was used to her firing spells. She was a little nervous that being outside the tent while she was firing would make him skittish still, but she hoped not.

She jumped a little when the flap to the tent opened and her aunt walked in. Aunt Hermione looked straight at her and Anna took a deep breath. She didn’t know how she knew, but it was her turn now. “Thank you,” she said quietly as the Minister of Magic wished her luck before leaving the tent. Then she walked to the door of her tent, stepping outside and smiling when she saw that Dobson was standing right outside with his trainer. “Alright, you ready for this?” she asked even though she knew he couldn’t answer. Anna stroked his feathers and beckoned him to follow her a few steps away from the trainer so they would be ready when the cannon sounded. Dodgson seemed curious, even cocked his head slightly to the right, but after a few seconds he stepped after her cautiously. He didn’t stop until he was standing directly beside Anna and she touched his feathers lightly once more, petting him as she waited for the sound of the cannon.

An eternity seemed to pass then, though Anna was sure it was only a matter of seconds. The cannon boomed and she made her way toward the arena, smiling when she didn’t even have to encourage Dodgson to follow her. He already was. A few steps away from the arena, Anna took a deep breath and smiled at her friend. “Here we go, Dodgson,” she told him softly before entering the unknown.

[co-admin lisa]

The second the Champion enters this arena, the ground trembles slightly. They are standing on cold, hard dried lava, devoid of any life and completely blackened. The arena has a dense smog circulating; it is hard to breathe deeply except closer to the ground. The minute the Champion steps further in, the ground shakes again, more violently this time. As they look up, they realize they are at the base of an active volcano; the red-orange magma churns and bubbles, thick gloppy splotches splashing over the side and dripping slowly down the mountainside. The volcano shoots ashes into the sky; the cloud of dust and ash hovers over the top before sprinkling down. The door to the second arena lies on the other side of the volcano, but with the volcano about to blow, this arena is all about speed. Can the Champion get to the other side of the volcano with their creature safely? Only time will tell!

INTRODUCTION SCORE: 8

FIRST ARENA WORD COUNT: 500 words

DUE BY: Wednesday, May 24th at 9:47pm EST

@annelise

[Deleted]

Anna stepped through the door into a world on fire. Not literally, but it was about to be. The ground underneath her rumbled and trembled and Anna choked on the thick smoke surrounding her. What was going on? Anna tried to look around herself, but she couldn’t see anything through the haze and she couldn’t breathe. Her throat was suddenly dry and scratchy, but her thoughts were torn from herself when she heard Dodgson gasping beside her. At the sound of his distress she forgot all about her own inability to breathe. This entire Task was about protecting and aiding Dodgson and he was choking right next to her! Anna’s mind went into hyperdrive as she tried to think of something that might help him. Suddenly, she had an idea. When she was young, she had watched a Muggle movie with her grandfather, and the family's house had caught on fire. What had they done then...? Think, Anna, think. They had put towels over their mouths! She was fairly certain that in the movie they had wet the towels, too, and considering how hot it was around her and Dodgson, Anna couldn't see a problem in adding a little coolness and moisture to the air they were breathing.

She went into action immediately, ducking down and whispering, “Diffindo,” to help her tear off a large piece of her robes. She breathed in, realizing that the air was clearer further down. If this plan didn’t work, she would have to come up with a way to get Dodgson to lower his head and breathe the cleaner air instead of the thick, smoky mix that was at his normal beak level. “Aguamenti,” she muttered, wetting the torn piece and using her wand to form the fabric into a mask that would adequately cover her friend’s beak. Taking a deep breath and rising once more, she moved to place the fabric mask around Dodgson’s beak. He writhed out of the mask and took a few steps away from her, shaking his head in a motion that she interpreted as confusion and fear. “Dodgson,” Anna gasped in what was supposed to be a soft voice. She stepped toward him once more, petting the feathers on his head lightly to try and calm him. Dodgson was wheezing out heavy breaths, and he nudged her shoulder gently with his beak. “Let’s try this again,” Anna rasped, trying desperately to get the mask on him so he could breathe and she could take care of herself. This time, Dodgson submitted, lowering his head as he allowed her to put the mask on. Once it was secure, Dodgson seemed to brighten up, able to breathe more smoothly now, despite the original discomfort of the mask.

Now Anna was able to focus on herself. The air around her was heavy and heated, getting thicker by the second. She thought for a moment about doing a Bubblehead Charm to protect herself from the smoke in the air, but quickly discarded the idea. She was worried that the soot and ash already in the air surrounding her would be trapped with her in the bubble, and the bubble would cause more problems than it solved. That wasn't a risk she was willing to take, especially since she needed to protect Dodgson, so Anna decided to create a makeshift mask for herself, as well. Ducking down once more was a relief to her tired lungs, since the air seemed cleaner the closer she got to the ground. Anna gasped in the fresher air for a few moments before performing the same spells as before to create her own mask. She slipped it on quickly and then slowly rose and finally took a good look at her smoke-blurred surroundings. 'The only light she had to see by was the glow of the lava, which was surprisingly bright and cast an orange-ish hue on everything. Anna’s eyes had to adjust to the dark glow; the sun was hidden behind all the ash and smoke so she had nothing else to rely on for her sight.

To her right was a tall, fat mound of blackened, hard substance. Anna took an unsuspecting step forward, trying to get a better look at her surroundings and figure out what she was standing on, when the ground shook. This quake was more violent than the first one and it sent Anna tumbling to the ground. As she fell, her palm skidded against the rocky ground, peeling off a layer of skin. Her hand wasn't bleeding, but it still stung. Dodgson ruffled his feathers and took a few skittish steps from side to side, not sure what was going on and nervous about being in such new surroundings. From the ground, Anna looked up to see lava splash over the side of the mountain and start crawling down it. The realization finally hit her like a ton of bricks as she stood up once more. She was at a volcano! Not only that, but it was an active volcano that was clearly about to blow. That realized, Anna was desperate to find the next door. The desire to escape was making her frantic, and the air suddenly seemed even dirtier as she began to hyperventilate. Panic started clawing at her insides as she struggled to decide where she should go. She reached over and grabbed Dodgson, hoping that he would be able to help calm her. He had just been looking around nervously, but he paused to cock his head at her. He knew something was wrong as well. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something shiny and relief flooded through her. Maybe that was the doorknob? Anna certainly hoped so, and the rational side of her whispered to her mind that it really couldn’t be anything else. There weren’t any other shiny objects here. Anna wasn’t entirely positive that was where she needed to go, but at least now she had a goal and it seemed like a logical one to her.

Looking around at the terrain, Anna had a quick decision to make. Should she go around the base of the mountain, and perhaps risk getting trapped by lava and running out of time, or should she cut across the bottom part of the volcano in an attempt to speed things up? Looking over at Dodgson, who seemed to be growing more and more anxious by the second, she made her decision. She was going to cut across a portion of the mountain and then follow the base in an effort to make it to the door before the lava did. ”Come on, Dodgson,” Anna spoke, not realizing that her voice was muffled from the mask. Dodgson didn’t react at all, instead looking at his surroundings with suspicious curiosity. Giving an exasperated sigh, Anna reached forward and touched his feathers to get his attention and then spoke more loudly. ”Let’s go!” she shouted, speaking above the deep, loud sounds of the volcano eruption as well. She took a few steps forward and turned, smiling beneath her mask and patting Dodgson on the head. At least he was staying with her. She glanced up at the mountain, noticing that the lava was creeping steadily closer. Still, it was only about a quarter of the way down the mountain.

As she and Dodgson hiked up the smaller mounds of dried lava along the edge of the mountain, Anna realized that she chose the more difficult of her two options. Walking around would have meant moving faster to try and beat the lava since it would have been a much further distance to travel, but going upward expended a greater amount of energy than she originally anticipated. She puffed with the effort it took to continue up the mountain and was frequently checking the bird beside her. To her surprise, Dodgson seemed to zip from one rock to another, happily moving along. Anna, on the other hand, was hot and sweaty and gasping for breath as she trudged along. The sweatier she became, the more ash stuck to her wet body and clothes. Anna tried to ignore that as she continued, preferring to think about what she was doing instead. She glanced up at the volcano repeatedly, checking to see where the lava was as they trekked across the bottom.

The ground rumbled again as the volcano erupted once more. Unbeknownst to Anna, this eruption disrupted boulders from higher up on the mountain and began a rockslide. At first, Anna had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that the loud sound from the eruption was going longer than expected, as was the movement of the earth beneath her. Dodgson was the one to realize that something was wrong. The bird frantically used its beak to pull at her robes, tugging her backward. Anna stumbled and she tried to keep her feet beneath her. “Dodgson, what are you doing?” she exclaimed, loudly enough that he could at least hear her trying to talk to him, even though he didn’t know what she was saying. He finally released her and Anna rounded on him, about to berate him for slowing them down when she heard the rumbling grow nearer. Turning back to the direction they’d been headed moments before, Anna froze at the sight of the rocks sliding down the mountain. They were dangerously close to her and Dodgson, even after the pair had been dragged several feet away by the quick-thinking bird. Her hands shook as the adrenaline coursed through her at the realization of what had almost just happened. She turned to Dodgson and threw her arms around his neck, giving him a tight hug. The bird stood still, seemingly accepting her gratitude, and even nudging her shoulder gently with his head, almost as if he were trying to calm her. A few moments later she pulled away from Dodgson to check and see where the lava was. A new rush of fear coursed through her when she realized it was halfway down the mountain and getting closer by the second. They needed to move fast, especially because this lava was moving faster than she originally thought.

The second the rockslide was over, she turned her attention from the approaching lava to see that there was now a giant pile of loose rocks in front of them. Anna stared for a moment in alarm. What was she going to do? Did she have enough time to navigate around the rocks, or did she have to go over them? Anna stared at the surrounding landscape, deciding the safest route was probably to go down. However, as she and Dodgson started descending, she realized that the rockslide tore away part of the mountainside, creating a sheer drop. In order to go down the mountain as she’d planned Anna would have to go around the cliff. That would make her have to backtrack enough that she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to make it to the exit in time, especially with the lava looming ever nearer and her fatigue growing. Onward it was. Anna didn’t want to try and go around the rocks by going up the volcano because she was nervous that the lava might reach the top around the same time that she and Dodgson would. Her only choice was to climb up the pile of loose rocks in front of her as quickly as humanly possible. Anna didn't like this option in the slightest, but it was the only plan that she could think of and time was running short. There was no better choice, and if there was, Anna didn't have time to think of it.

So, slipping and sliding, Anna began to make her way up the loose rocks as quickly as she possibly could. For the first bit, she kept a close eye on Dodgson, worried that he would be overconfident because of how easy scaling the mountain had been for him so far. She needn’t have worried, however, because although the Diricawl was not moving with the same ease as before, he was steadily making his way up the rock pile without seeming to struggle much. Anna, however, was no rock climber. As she climbed up, the rocks beneath her occasionally shifted, throwing her off her good pace and causing her to slip and scrape the palms of her hands once more, this time causing them to bleed. She desperately wanted to check and see where the lava was, but did not dare to look away from the rocks in front of her for fear of falling and losing more of her precious time.

After what seemed like an eternity of climbing, Anna drew near to the top of the pile. As she reached for what was hopefully the last rock she would need to use to get to the top, it shifted and fell, leaving Anna holding on to the other stones precariously with one hand. She frantically searched for another place for her free hand to go, before her other hand gave out from the strain of carrying her body. As she struggled to find a hand hold, she heard Dodgson whimpering and using his talons to scrape the rocks above her. ”I’m coming,” she told him. Then he was there, his neck stretched out so his head was beside her. Gentle as could be, Dodgson nudged her loose shoulder with his beak repeatedly and Anna got the impression that he wanted her to grab on. Hoping desperately that this was what he wanted, she reached out and took hold of his neck, relieved beyond belief when he slowly lifted her to safety. Once she was safe at the top with Dodgson, he pulled away and sank down, seeming exhausted from the effort it took to carry Anna.

Looking almost immediately through the smoke towards the mountain, Anna’s heart fell when she realized that they were too late. The lava was surrounding the rocks Anna and Dodgson were perched on, leaving them on an island that was slowly shrinking as the lava twisted closer and closer. There was no way to escape. The heat was increasing and Anna could sense Dodgson’s unease as she tried to figure out what they should do.

Suddenly there was a loud boom, and the rocks beneath Dodgson and Anna trembled violently. The entire world was shaking yet again as the volcano spit fire into the sky. The surrounding area was lit up, despite the increase of ash and soot, as the top of the volcano exploded. Rocks fell from the sky and plunked to the ground with sounds like hail on a tin roof. Ash swirled around them like snow, as if they were in a blizzard instead of on the side of a volcano. It was mesmerizing, so much so that Anna almost didn't notice that the ground beneath her feet was crumbling away. Their rock pile was disintegrating beneath them. As they began sinking toward the lava, Anna grabbed Dodgson, his frantic eyes watching her imploringly. Behind them, there was a sound like a thunderclap, and Anna turned just quickly enough to see a bubble of lava explode, spraying molten magma in every direction. Dodgson’s eyes widened in fright and he hissed.

The next thing Anna knew there was a loud popping sound. Originally she thought was another lava bubble exploding nearby, but knew she was mistaken when she realized she was standing on solid ground once more. Dodgson saved them from almost certain death. Anna felt slightly embarrassed that she hadn’t thought to Apparate, but she also didn’t know if she would have been able to here. She wanted to feel relieved, wanted to act like the whole thing was over, but it wasn’t. She turned to Dodgson and stroked the feathers on his neck lightly for a moment before encouraging him to continue on with her. ”Come on, Dodgson. We’re almost there,” she told him in a soft voice. She wasn't even sure whether or not it was true, but Anna needed the Diricawl to stay with her. He watched her for a moment as she took several steps away, but he remained planted where he was and Anna knew there was no way she could make him move if he didn’t want to. ”Please,” she added, nodding reassuringly at him.

She glanced back up at the mountain. They were at the base once more, but the lava was three quarters of the way down. Then she saw a glint of gold, which she remembered seeing from the other side of the volcano. It could only be the door. The best part was that it was only a little more than a hundred meters away. She looked back to Dodgson and exhaled in relief when he was walking toward her. Once he reached her, she started moving quickly. The lava was approaching and there was no way she was going to let it reach the door before they did. Anna had absolutely no intention of dying here. She could hear Dodgson struggling to breathe as he tried to stay with her. Anna was out of breath from the now-thick ash that clouded the air, and she struggled to get a breath deep enough to fill her lungs as she ran.

The door somehow seemed farther and farther away as Anna and Dodgson rushed toward it with renewed vigor. They were so close that they got one last burst of desperate energy to push them along. Somehow, Dodgson seemed to know that this door was the way to get to safety and he began to move more quickly than Anna. She widened her gait, trying to match her speed with Dodgson’s, even though that was almost impossible because he was faster than she was. The lava was oozing rapidly towards the door, but Dodgson was already there and Anna was approaching as quickly as she could, hoping that she would be able to arrive before the door (and the Diricawl) were consumed. Anna ran faster than she ever had in her life, gasping for breath as sweat poured down her face. Dodgson waited impatiently, clawing at the door as Anna threw herself the last few feet. Nervous, Anna jiggled the door knob as she moved to open it and pull the thick, wooden door out of the way so they could both get to safety. The moment it opened, both she and the Diricawl stepped through. Hopefully there would be fresh air in this new arena for them.

[co-admin lisa]

The scorching hot, hard terrain of the volcano is replaced quickly by a squelching thick swampy bog. Trying to get through is difficult, as each step could send the Champion waist deep into the muddy water. Insects chirp and frogs croak, they’re perfectly at home in this arena, with the smell of mildew thick in the air. Trees pulled up from their roots lie on their sides, their branches drifting lifeless through the bog. There’s a light up ahead; is that the door they see? No, it’s just a hinkypunk, ready to lure its next victim (or victims) into the murky abyss. The door must be hidden around here somewhere though, perhaps through the trunk of a hollowed out tree? Can our Champion see themselves and their creatures safely through the swamp onto their third arena? Stay tuned to see!

FIRST ARENA SCORE: 10
WORD COUNT: 650
DUE BY: Sunday, May 28th at 10:00am EDT

*to get to the perfect 10 you must encounter the hinkypunk*
@annelise

[Deleted]

It took both Anna and Dodgson a few steps into the next arena before they stopped running. Anna tore the mask off her face, desperate to get some fresh air, but she didn’t get her wish. The air around her now was no longer toxic and filled with ash, but it was thick, muggy, unpleasant, and just as difficult to breathe – just in a different way. It wasn’t exactly what she’d hoped for, but at least it was better than the volcano. She turned to the Diricawl to see he had his head lowered next to his feet and he was using his talons to try and claw the mask away from his beak. He was not succeeding, much to his obvious dismay. Chuckling a little as she moved closer, Anna bent down and touched Dodgson’s head to get his attention. “Let me help you there,” she told him softly, pausing for a moment before moving to take the mask off. She didn’t want to get grazed by his talons accidentally. Her hands were already hurting enough as it was from the scrapes she had sustained while climbing on the volcano.

Wait, her hands! Anna straightened up and turned her attention to her scraped hands, suddenly wondering if they were going to get infected from the grit and ash of the last arena and the mucky water of this one. She pulled out her wand once again. “Aguamenti,” she muttered. She used the clean, clear water that her wand produced to wash the dirt off her hands, sighing a little at the coolness. Anna bent down and used the Diffindo spell once more to help her tear off another piece of her robe. What was the point in trying to keep it intact if it was already torn? “Scourgify!” She said, cleaning the portion of robes that she tore off so they’d make better bandages. Anna wrapped the cloth around her hands and tied it as tightly as she could manage. At least now she knew her hands would be safe from whatever bacteria she encountered here. Well, relatively safe. She glanced around to see Dodgson, whose head was once again cocked to the side as he peered at her.

Her hands taken care of, Anna decided to take some time to take in her surroundings, and noticed that Dodgson seemed to be doing the same. As she looked ahead, almost everything she saw was green. Green grass was poking intermittently through water that was covered with green algae, and the whole arena was spotted with trees with green moss climbing up their trunks. It was so thick that she couldn’t quite tell where the water ended and the ground began. She was in a bog, which explained the foul smell. Were any of these arenas going to be kind to her nose? The ground in front of her seemed safe, but knowing how insecure the ground in bogs was, Anna was unsure whether or not she would sink if she took another step forward.

At least this arena wasn’t as desolate as the volcano. Anna could hear the soft croaking of frogs and toads as well as the buzzing of insects. She smiled when she saw a few butterflies fluttering past. Yes, this place was definitely better than the volcano. However, Anna still had a problem to solve. She knew that she was going to sink into the murky water at one point or another, and she didn’t want to be soaking wet, so what could she do to keep herself and Dodgson dry?

Anna looked at the landscape around her, trying to figure out a solution when she saw something pop out of the corner of her eye. A bubble rose from the surface of the water, and hovered at the top a moment before popping. The full-body-bubble charm was the solution to her problem! This time Anna decided to perform the charm on herself before placing it on Dodgson so that he could see it was safe. “Ebublio,” she muttered, pointing the wand at herself. The moment she spoke, the Diricawl’s attention was entirely focused on her, his eyes watching her imploringly. He stepped closer for a second as a glow of purple surrounded Anna, and then purple flame engulfed her. Dodgson cawed loudly, obviously worried about his master. Once the flame had dissipated and the bubble was formed, hovering only a few inches away from her body, Dodgson stepped closer and poked it it with his beak. Anna had performed the charm correctly, so the bubble didn’t pop. Dodgson let out a soft squawk and Anna smiled at him. “Don’t worry Dodgson, this is a way to stay safe.” She then pointed her wand at him. Realizing what she was doing, Dodgson stood still. He knew the wand could make things explode, so he probably wondered what she was about to do. Anna muttered the charm again and Dodgson skittered from side to side as the purple flames surrounded him. He let out a high-pitched squawk and all the surrounding creatures grew silent at the sudden loud noise. Once the purple faded away, Anna looked at him and she saw the beginnings of panic in his eyes. “Dodgson, you’re good. Don’t worry,” she told him repeatedly in a soothing voice as he continued to pace the distance between her and the door they entered through. After listening to her calming reassurances for a while, the Diricawl settled down, moving closer to Anna, almost as though he was trying to tell her he was ready. Anna nodded at him and smiled, “Alright, we’re ready to go now.”

Anna took five steps, surprised that the ground was so secure beneath her feet. Then she sank into the water. “Ugh, gross!” she exclaimed, wrinkling her nose. The charm did its job, keeping the water out and keeping Anna dry. She turned to see Dodgson join her in the water. It was a good thing he was only a few inches shorter than she was, or he might have had a hard time keeping his head above the turbid water. Dodgson’s bubble also seemed to have held, if the lack of noise was anything to go by. Pushing forward through the thick mud was slow going for Anna. She wasn’t used to having to fight water in order to move forward, but even so Anna felt like they were going at a decent pace. To her relief, Dodgson was enjoying himself once more. Just as he had a good time climbing the rocks in the previous arena, he was moving smoothly and swiftly through the water, chirping happily as he went. Mosquitos and dragonflies sailed on top of the water and Dodgson chased them as if he didn’t have a care in the world, though Anna did notice him looking around occasionally to see where she was. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Anna was not liking her time in the bog. She was constantly swiping her hands from side to side, trying to bat off all the insects surrounding her. She wasn’t itching at the moment, but she was pretty sure that she was going to wake up the next day with quite a few red welts from mosquito bites. Had she trapped some of them in the bubble with her? Maybe she was simply imagining them inside the bubble because she could now see how many were outside surrounding her. Anna wished she could be as enthusiastic as Dodgson about the arena, but while he was playing around, she had a job to do. Namely, finding the door. As they moved through the murky swamp water, they passed floating logs and sticks, and Anna was constantly trying to look past them in an attempt to find the door. She was also looking inside trees and in thickets of grass on either side of her, trying to glimpse behind them to make sure she and her companion didn’t pass the door, but to no avail. Anna couldn’t see anything that seemed promising, or even worth investigating and couldn’t help but hope that they didn’t make the door too difficult to find in this arena.

The first time Anna took a step forward and the ground was firm once more, she almost tripped. It didn’t look any sturdier than the stuff she’d been wading through, but apparently it was. As she took a few steps to move from the water to the land, she heard the scuffling sounds of tiny feet in the grass. Looking closely, Anna thought she saw a few mice’s tails, and the red plumage of a fox scurrying through the brush. At least it wasn’t something that was going to attack them. Dodgson heard the fox, too, and stepped closer to her, so much that if they hadn’t still been protected by the bubbles, he would have been touching her. She didn’t expect him to move so close, but Anna still reached out gently (careful not to pop her bubble from the inside) and placed a hand on him. It was really her bubble touching his, but even so it had the desired effect, and Dodgson relaxed. Once she started walking again, he followed her closely for a little while. After some time the Diricawl began exploring on his own again, though he still stayed closer to Anna than he had when they were swimming. Since Anna could still hear animals moving around – she thought she saw a mole skitter across their path – she assumed nothing dangerous was nearby. She knew that animals often became silent when they were scared, as they had when Dodgson had made a loud noise earlier. The soft hum of the insects, the scampering of smaller animals and the frogs croaking were all quite reassuring to Anna. When she and Dodgson came to the next sudden drop back into the water, Dodgson didn’t seem to care at all and simply went back to chasing bugs. The entire process of finding firm ground and falling back into the water happened two or three times as Anna continued to search for the door to the arena. The falling and getting back up was slightly disorienting, but not horrible. At least she hadn’t run into anything dangerous yet.

It was during one of the moments when Anna and Dodgson were leaving the water that she saw it. A … was it a light? She wasn’t entirely positive, but Anna could see a dim bluish green light floating above the water-soaked ground a short distance away. She shifted course and started moving towards the light when she also a familiar golden glint about two feet to the left of it. The door! Anna recognized the doorknob – it was the same color as the one in the first arena. The door must have been behind some mist or fog, because it definitely wasn’t as clear as she remembered from the volcano arena. That was no matter, though, because she had still found the door! She grinned, delighted that she hadn’t lost her way and missed the door somehow. “We’re almost there, Dodgson!” she squealed in excitement, speeding up as she moved to approach the door, hardly believing her good luck in finding it so quickly without any incident. Dodgson followed her quickly, also seeming quite excited, though that was probably because Anna’s attitude was contagious.

Anna was so intent on the door that she didn’t even notice the light slowly floating closer to it. Suddenly, a loud monstrous shriek pierced the air as a blast of yellow-green light shot directly at Anna. Glad that it was heading towards her instead of Dodgson, Anna jumped out of the way of the fast approaching light. The light – which Anna realized was actually a fireball – hit her bubble in front of her left shoulder. The force of the fireball’s impact made Anna twist to the left sharply. Her bubble popped, either from the impact of the fireball or her sudden movement. Luckily, the protective bubble saved her from getting burns or worse injuries from the blast. And to think, it had just been to keep her from getting wet. Turning back so she could face the light once more and figure out what was going on, Anna saw a metal cage surrounding the hazy light. It wasn’t just a light then – it was a lantern. And a lantern in a bog … that wasn’t mist at all – it was a hinkypunk! Anna smiled. They had learned about hinkypunks in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she knew exactly what she was supposed to do now. She turned to Dodgson and held a hand out, trying to signal that she wanted him to stay where he was. In a stern voice she instructed him, “Stay here, Dodgson.” She watched him closely for a moment and it seemed like he nodded to her, agreeing to stay put so that she could get down to business. She must have been imagining things, Anna thought to herself. She didn’t have time to consider it, though. Anna quickly turned, and began stalking toward the hinkypunk, the fire of the previous arena’s volcano burning in her eyes. No one tried to hurt her friends, and no hinkypunk was going to get in the way of her getting out of this arena.

She moved so quickly that the creature didn’t have time to disappear entirely or sneak off, though she wasn’t sure if it would have tried to. While she moved closer, it continued to shoot multiple fireballs at her. The hinkypunk swung the lantern once to the left and once to the right, and then aimed the lantern where it wanted the fireball to go – which, in this case, was right at Anna. “Protego,” she muttered in the response, not wanting to waste her time and energy trying to dodge the fireballs. She needed to save as much energy as possible for the last arena. As she planned, the hinkypunk was so distracted by trying to shoot her with fireballs and entirely missed the fact that she was trapping it against the door. Anna had assumed – correctly – that the door had some sort of spell or enchantment on it that made it impossible to pass without first opening it, so the mist couldn’t just diffuse around it. Anna lifted her wand, pointing it straight at the creature in front of her. “Lumos Duo,” she said confidently, nodding in satisfaction when the bright white light produced from her wand connected with the hinkypunk and stayed on it. The hinkypunk danced from side to side, trying to escape the light, but failed to do anything other than look ridiculous. The light soon dazed the creature, and it stopped struggling. As the spell stayed focused on the hinkypunk, it slowly solidified, shifting from a shimmering silver mist to a white-grey creature with only one leg and no eyes, ears, mouth, or nose. Honestly, Anna was a little amazed that it knew exactly where to shoot the fireballs when it was trying to attack her a short while ago. That couldn’t be easy without eyes, or anything else to sense with. Now that the hinkypunk was solid, it could be affected by magic. This was the perfect time to end the fight. First, though, Anna had to maneuver herself a little – since she had trapped the creature against the door, she couldn’t use the Knockback Jinx unless she changed the side she was coming at. Once she was at an appropriate angle, Anna began casting the spells needed to banish the creature forever. “Flipendo.” Anna said, her voice calm and even as she pushed the creature back with magic. She repeated the jinx three more times, and each time the hinkypunk seemed more and more disoriented. The last time she cast it, the creature exploded into a puff of white smoke. A wet wind blew through the bog, carrying the smoke with it.

The instant the smoke disappeared, Anna knew the danger was gone and turned back to Dodgson, hoping he hadn’t wandered off. They were at the door, she didn’t want to have to go looking for him. To her complete surprise, he was right where she left him. Her mouth fell open and she took slow steps toward him. Her wander-hungry, overly-curious Diricawl had actually stayed still! Anna laughed and ran to Dodgson. When she approached him, he tried to nuzzle her with his beak and popped his protective bubble from the inside. Anna stroked his feathers. “I can’t believe you did that! Great job!” She praised him happily. “Now let’s get out of here.” With her hand still on Dodgson, Anna started walking toward the door she had just left, ready to move on to the next arena.She couldn’t believe her good luck in this arena. Maybe she would be able to do pretty well in this Task after all.

[co-admin lisa]

The third and final arena for the Champion slightly resembles their first one, except, mercifully there is no lava flow coming from the top. Instead they are met with a rocky, cragged mountainside; they will have to cross carefully to the other side of the mountain in order to get to their creatures natural habitat. With any mountain, there are handholds and flat tops to safely stand on, but one false move could create a rockslide that could mean disaster. As if that wasn’t enough, as they begin the climb over the mountain, they can see a spurt of fire and a loud cry. Is it a random geyer hidding within the mountain, or an adolescent Romanian Longhorn dragon, wondering where its mother went? Will the Champion see their creature safely home? Only time will tell!

SECOND ARENA SCORE: 8
WORD COUNT: 800
DEADLINE: Sunday, June 4th at 9:12pm EDT

[Deleted]

Fresh, clear air! That was the first thing Anna noticed when she and Dodgson stepped through the door together and into the last arena. They could finally breathe freely. No damp, vile-smelling bog water and no toxic ash and smoke from the volcano. Anna looked at her surroundings with interest, and saw that she was on an extremely rocky mountainside. No matter where she looked, all she saw was rocks. There were big boulders and small pebbles, white rocks and black rocks, smooth rocks and jagged rocks … rocks in every size, shape, and color imaginable. Other than the rocks, though, there was just air. Anna couldn’t see anything else – no foliage, nothing green, and no water. In all honesty, a part of her wondered if they stuck her in the same arena as her first, just without the exploding volcano. This might be the view from the middle of the giant, previously-exploding mountain? Anna glanced around, looking toward the location of the door in her first arena, just in case this was the same arena and the door was in the same location. There wasn’t anything there, though, no glint of gold… which meant that Anna was out of luck. That was fine – she had found the other two doors without any help, and she would find a third.

Anna wasn’t sure if there was anything to do other than climb, especially since she couldn’t see the door from here. She just needed to relay that message to her feathered friend. Anna turned to Dodgson. ”Hey buddy,” she told him, stroking his feathers gently. “I think we’re going to climb this thing, at least a little bit, until we can find the door.” She paused a moment. In all honesty, Anna did not want to climb this mountain, but once again, it seemed like the arena had her backed into a corner. From where she stood, the mountain looked gigantic and dangerous. Many, if not most, of the rocks were resting precariously on the ground, ready to slide if one put any amount of pressure on them at all. Anna wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a cliff somewhere waiting for her to accidentally fall off of it. This did not look like it was going to be fun at all, especially with the exhaustion from the other arenas already clawing at her.

Taking a deep breath, Anna began to climb. It was easier than she expected, since she only had one way to go – up. She stuck her hands in the best handholds that she could find, pulling herself up bit by bit, rock by rock, her feet naturally following behind her as the rocks she pushed off of clattered when they feel down the mountain. Anna was crawling up the rocks more than walking, but it worked, considering that this portion of the mountain was rather steep. She was a little worried, if only because she gets shaky when exhausted, and this was not a place anyone wanted to be shaky. After a few seconds, Anna beckoned to her bird. “Come on Dodgson, let’s finish this.” She said with a sigh. Her arms and legs felt heavy, and she knew her body was strained and stressed from the amount of pressure she’d placed on it already in the other arenas, but there was no other choice but to go on. Anna was so focused on her own exhaustion and efforts to go up the hill that she didn’t hear Dodgson squawk at her from further below the mountainside. She half-crawled, half-walked several feet before she realized that something was missing. She stopped and looked around for a moment, confused. Something was wrong, but she didn’t know what it was. She had absolutely no idea – her brain wasn’t functioning correctly. Then another squawk rang through the air, and it sent a spark up through her exhausted thoughts. Dodgson! Anna turned around to see that her Diricawl friend was sitting on the ground right where she left him. More than a little annoyed, Anna called to him. “Dodgson, up here! You can do it!” Dodgson was looking right up at her, but he didn’t move an inch. He knew how to climb – he had done it on the volcano – so Anna wasn’t sure why he wasn’t moving.

“Give me patience,” Anna muttered to herself as she descended back down toward him. It didn’t feel like a long way going down, but she remembered how much effort it took to go up the rocks even the short distance she just went, and heading down increased her chances of slipping and hurting herself. Anna approached Dodgson with her hands outstretched. “We have to go! We can’t just stay here forever, bud. Come on, I need you to stand up,” Anna tried to encourage the diricawl in a cheerful voice, but he didn’t move. Anna took another deep breath and knelt down in front of the large bird. He turned his head so one of his eyes was on her and Anna rested her forehead on his beak for a moment. Then she sat back up and looked him in the eye, reaching forward to pat his beak gently. “I know you’re tired. So am I, but we need to keep moving. If we stop, we’ll have to stay here even longer.” Anna didn’t know if it was tiredness that was keeping Dodgson from moving, but that was the only idea she had, since she knew Dodgson could climb. Anna also had no idea whether or not Dodgson could understand her (she didn’t really think he could though). Still, as he watched her intently as she spoke, she felt a silent connection run through the two of them. Even if he couldn’t understand her words, he could understand her desperation, and he trusted her, so Anna hoped that the diricawl would still respond.

Dodgson rose to his feet and Anna jumped up, despite her aching joints. She was eager to get going now that Dodgson was also on board. “Exactly! Great job, now let’s get out of here. I think if we get to the top, we’ll be able to see the door from there.” Hopefully. Right now she couldn’t see anything resembling a door. Just rocks and endless sky. So up and over it was. If she couldn’t see the door from the top of the mountain, then that meant that it was probably inside the mountain someplace, or stuck between the crags of the rocks… which was going to make it a lot more difficult to find. Anna was just going to keep hoping that it would be visible from the top. She was trying to be patient, with both Dodgson and herself, but she just wanted to finish the task and go back home.

With Dodgson now by her side, Anna began the trek up the mountain once more. Her muscles and joints ached with each step, and Anna’s main thoughts were on the fact that if she ever made it out of here, she was never going to climb a mountain or rocks again. Between the volcano and this arena, she had her fill of scaling rocks, especially when she was being judged for her performance. Climbing of any kind would be off her to-do list for forever.

Beside her, Dodgson was moving much slower than he had previously. He wasn’t any less sure-footed, but Anna was convinced that he was just as tired as she was. She figured that was probably why he didn’t want to join her initially when she started climbing, but he was with her now and it was a good thing. Losing her companion during the third arena wouldn’t have been good for either of them. At least they had reached a stretch of mountain that required walking upwards instead of legitimate climbing and crawling as she had previously done. The two of them were trying to figure out together how to ascend safely. Anna took the lead, which was just fine until she hit some slippery, unattached rocks. Her feet began to slip on the loose rocks, and Anna would have fallen down the side of the mountain, except her diricawl was standing right behind her. Having Dodgson gave something to fall back on – literally. He did well on this terrain and so he pushed her out of the lead, nudging her with his head until she wrapped an arm around his neck to secure herself. For the next several feet the rocks weren’t stable. As the pair crossed them, Dodgson stood firmly and kept Anna from falling. Then, once the insecure rocks were no longer underneath them, Dodgson pulled himself out of Anna’s grip and she lead once more. The process continued several times, with Dodgson using his sure footing to ferry Anna across any slippery sections and Anna leading when the rocks were more stable.

They almost reached the peak of the mountain when they heard it. A loud cry rent the air and a spurt of fire burst upward repeatedly. Instantly, Dodgson started fidgeting and began to edge back down the mountain. “No Dodgson!” Anna cried softly, trying to not alert the creature of their presence by being too loud. She prayed that the diricawl didn’t start squawking – they had seen in the bog how easy it was for other animals to hear him. She just hoped that Dodgson could keep his calm for a few minutes longer while she figured out what to do. There was one thing that Anna was sure of, though. “We have to go this way in order to get out.” Obviously, the people in charge of the task wanted her to get past whatever was spitting fire to get to the door, just as she’d had to get past the lava and the hinkypunk to exit the other two arenas. This was for the Triwizard Tournament, and it was supposed to be difficult. “We can do this,” she encouraged the bird. At the sound of her calm, sure voice, Dodgson relaxed slightly. At the very least, he stopped trying to go back down the mountain. He moved to stand directly beside her, and now that the diricawl was close, Anna could feel his tension. She moved her hand to touch the back of his neck to try to steady him and calm him further, so that they could begin to move.

Slowly, the two began to edge their way up until they reached the peak. To Anna’s surprise, at the top of the mountain there was a small crater, corroborating her earlier idea that this could possibly the same arena as before, since the crater meant that the mountain could have once been a volcano. In the center of the crater there was an enormous nest and within the nest, a dragon. Anna knew more than the average witch when it came to dragons. She hadn’t seen one in person, but her Uncle Charlie studied them for a living, so she had heard more than a few stories about what dragons were like. She had studied them by herself, too, since they had been included in her Uncle Harry’s Triwizard Tournament. In short: Anna wasn’t as frightened as she could have been by the dragon.

It was definitely not a baby, but it also didn’t look full-grown, either. It was an adolescent, or perhaps a young adult. It looked strange, though – nothing like the serpentine lizards that Anna had seen adorning the dragonology books she had borrowed from her uncle. This one was bulkier, with huge muscles that didn’t seem to befit its otherwise small appearance. It was dark forest green and the sunlight overhead glinted off of its golden horns. The dragon looked large enough that it looked like it was about to outgrow the nest, which Anna thought was odd. The dragon let out another cry and shot up another plume of fire, and Anna had a sudden realization. The dragon wasn’t trying to intimidate her – it was trying to summon its mother. “Dodgson, we have to get out of here now.” she muttered softly. Anna did not want to be around when the mother came and found two strangers in such close proximity to her baby.

Anna reached over and smoothed Dodgson’s ruffled feathers, trying to decide what the smartest route around this would be. Her petting was slow and rhythmic, and was calming Anna as much as Dodgson. She didn’t realize that her fingers were straying close to the bunch of feathers on Dodgson’s back that she always touched right before the Diricawl apparated. Her fingers brushed against them, and immediately there was a crack as Dodgson Apparated, obviously terrified to be so close to a dragon.

When they reappeared, Anna found herself standing on a very unstable boulder. She jumped off and, looking around quickly, she found herself feet away from the dragon’s nest, on her own. Great. This was not where she wanted to be at all. For a few seconds, the young dragon seemed surprised that two creatures suddenly appeared directly in front of it and Anna took that time to look around quickly. She had been hoping to get further away from the nest, not closer to it, but that hadn’t worked out. Before she could do anything, she needed to find where Dodgson was, and she needed to figure out where they had Apparated from so she could get her bearings and didn’t start going back the way she had come. As Anna was scanning her surroundings, her eyes caught glimpse of a familiar golden circle. She almost cried in relief when she realized she had spotted the doorknob. The fact that the doorknobs always found a way to catch the light was extremely helpful in an otherwise less-than-helpful situation. The dragon began shrieking at the duo, either intimidated or scared by their presence. “Go, Dodgson!” Anna yelled, pointing and gesturing to the door frantically. To her great relief, the diricawl looked in the direction she was pointing and started trotting toward the door immediately. At least now if there was a fight or the dragon starting shooting fire at her, the creature she was supposed to protect wouldn’t get hurt. Dodgson being out of the way was well and good, but now Anna needed to get away from the dragon, too, so she could open the door for the diricawl and they could move on in the task.

The young dragon jumped out of the nest and approached Anna warily, almost as if he had never encountered a human before. That was a good thing. At least Anna hadn’t run into the mother, who probably would have met a human, or at least been less hesitant in attacking an unknown enemy. The dragon lowered its horns and Anna’s eyebrows furrowed curiously. Was it going to – before she could finish the thought, the dragon charged! Anna yelled and jumped to the side to avoid the ferocious horns. The dragon shrieked again at his failure, definitely more angry than scared or confused. Anna knew she needed to get out of the arena fast. The mountain was unstable, and trying to fight when she couldn’t get her footing wasn’t a good idea. Anna glanced around as the dragon turned slowly to face her once more, searching for something that she could use to her advantage, as a distraction while she got to the door. The dragon finished turning around and charged again. Anna flung herself out of the way towards the dragon’s nest … the nest! When the adolescent dragon charged for a third time, Anna jumped even closer to the nest, beginning to put her plan into action. She knew the more she danced around the dragon, the greater the chance was that she was going to get hurt, so she was trying to go quickly. Adrenaline was burning away her exhaustion, but she had been relying on adrenaline too much lately, and she knew she couldn’t rely on it much longer. The dragon paused in trying to attack her, turning his face to the sky and letting out another scream. This time, though, there was a returning cry, albeit a distant one. Anna’s stomach dropped. The dragon’s mother was on her way, and Anna needed to be out of the arena well before she arrived.

The young dragon lowered its head once more and charged at Anna, whose back was to the nest. The nest itself was a tangle of branches that must have been carried for miles, considering how there weren’t any trees in Anna’s line of sight, and it was integral to Anna’s plan. She was glad that the young dragon still hadn’t learned she could dodge his charging if she was quick enough – it made her job a lot easier. Once again, Anna jumped out of the way just in time. The dragon wasn’t able to stop himself from his charge, and with his head lowered, he couldn’t see that he was about to get stuck. The dragon found its horns wedged in the thick twist of branches that made its nest. Now that the dragon was incapacitated, however briefly, Anna could run. She sprinted towards the door, already hearing the frantic cries of the adolesecent dragon and its mother’s furious responses behind her as she sprinted towards the diricawl and the door. The mother’s voice was getting louder, and Anna wasn’t sure how much more time she had.

Anna sprinted towards the door where Dodgson was waiting for her. He was squawking like crazy and jumping from one foot to the other. It almost looked as if he was cheering Anna on, except she could see the pure fear in his expression. He was afraid, but he wasn’t Apparating … why wasn’t he Apparating? As Anna finally approached the door, Dodgson ran up to her, and then continued to run alongside her. A revelation hit Anna at that moment. Dodgson waited for her. He was a smart bird, and he knew he was in trouble, but he waited because he wanted to make sure she was safe as well. She knew the task was designed so that she could protect Dodgson, but Anna realized in this moment that he didn’t need her protection. He was bigger, stronger, and more powerful than her, even if some people just saw him as a dumb bird. She wasn’t his protection; they were partners.

Together the pair reached the door and Anna trembled with fear and exhaustion as she reached for the doorknob. She felt the ground shake as the mother dragon landed behind them, her shout so loud and so full of rage that it hurt Anna’s ears. Anna slammed her hand against the doorknob and tore the door open. She and Dodgson both rushed through the open door before the mother dragon could unleash her wrath, and Anna realized that they had done it. All she had to do now was deliver Dodgson home, retrieve Hogwarts’s jewel, and then she would be finished with the second task.

[co-admin lisa]

At long last, the Champion finally comes to their fourth and final arena, the home habitat of the diricawl. A forest spreads out in front of her and the diricawl, the warm tropical breeze rustling the trees. In the distance, she can hear the sound of waves lapping up against shore. In the center of the forest is a large nest, where the diricawls family is anxiously waiting their family memebers return, popping in and out of the area with anticipation. The purple jewel is being carefully guarded in the middle of the nest - will the Champion be able to retrieve it successfully? Only time will tell!

THIRD ARENA SCORE: 7+3=10
DEADLINE: exactly 1 week after you return (will update when your absence is over)
WORD COUNT: 1,000

@annelise

[Deleted]

Once she and Dodgson both made it through the doorway, Anna spun around and closed it, still nervous that the mother dragon would try to attack her somehow. She wasn’t sure if the beast would blow fire at her – the adolescent hadn’t tried to, though Anna couldn’t imagine why. Anna wasn’t willing to risk being burned by the mother, especially since she and Dodgson made it to safety. It would be ridiculous to make it to the last arena and then get blasted with fire through the door… though that assumed there weren’t any protections on the doors to keep creatures and the dangers that came from them in the environments they were supposed to be in. And, honestly, there probably were – that had been why her confrontation with the hinkypunk had gone the way it had, wasn’t it? Anna blinked slightly, and then rubbed her eyes. She was thinking through this too much, and she needed to focus on getting through the arena and getting the jewel.

Taking a deep breath now that the door was closed, she put her back against the doorway and slid down, her eyes closed. Even though she knew she needed to get the jewel, Anna was so physically exhausted. She couldn’t recall a moment where she’d ever felt this way before. Her limbs were aching, her legs trembling from the exertion of running so much in the last while. Now that she was safe, all of the adrenaline was leaving her, and she just felt hollow. How long had she been running, and climbing, and fighting magical creatures? Anna felt as though she’d been trapped in this arena for days, battling the environment itself just as much as the creatures. All she wanted to do was lie down and rest her aching muscles and sleep, but she knew she couldn’t. Not yet. She had one more thing to do. She’d made it through the three arenas. As she had told herself earlier, the really hard part was over. Now her job was to escort Dodgson home and get the jewel from his family’s nest. Dodgson squawked at her and Anna turned her face towards him to smile at him, her eyes still closed. She raised a hand and waved. “Just give me a few minutes to calm down,” she said, hoping that he’d relax a little. She couldn’t get up just yet – she just needed a few minutes to recharge. Anna heard a thump and then something warm and soft press against her side. Lifting her arm, she reached over with her hand and felt her diricawl resting beside her. She smiled to herself as she laid her arm on his back and stroked his feathers gently, which was surprisingly relaxing for both of them. They weren’t in any immediate danger, she didn’t think, though she hadn’t looked around herself to check. Still, they were at Dodgson’s home. He would know if danger was nearby and he would warn her, she was sure. After going through all of the trials of the arenas together, Anna had complete faith in Dodgson, and she liked to think that the trust was reciprocated.

Anna had no idea how long she sat there, taking deep breaths and gathering her energy. It took her quite a while for the rest of her senses to start taking in information, even though her eyes were still resting shut. She couldn’t force them to open still. The weather here was perfect, no burning hot like it had been by the volcano or uncomfortably humid in the swamp. The grass she was sitting on was soft, and it was warm, and a soft breeze flitted across her face every few seconds. It felt like the perfect spring day, but without the warmth of the sun on her face. Leaves rustled in the breeze, explaining why her face wasn’t bathed in sunshine, and… was that the sound of water? It sounded like waves lapping gently against the shore, but Anna would have to look to be entirely sure. She still wasn’t ready to open her eyes, especially not for something that trivial. And she didn’t need to open her eyes. For a moment, Anna felt a stab of panic, wondering if Dodgson’s home really was dangerous, because it was so beautiful, but she couldn’t hold on to the feeling for longer than a second. The breeze blew by again, and when she took a deep breath, she could smell the salt of the ocean on it. That meant she wasn’t far away from a shore, because the wind couldn’t carry that smell very far. Everything was so soothing, the sights and smells and feeling of Dodgson’s home. Did Anna really want to get up after all? It would be much simpler to stay here and relax…

It felt like she sat with her back against the arena door for an eternity, but at the same time it felt like mere minutes before Dodgson started nudging her shoulder with his beak. He did so gently, but persistently. Anna tried to ignore him at first, Dodgson became more insistent, and more difficult to disregard. She opened her eyes slowly and considered his face. He looked worried at first – perhaps he was concerned about her well-being after she was still for so long – but when she smiled at him, he seemed to relax. Dodgson inhaled deeply and then rose to his feet, bending down and pushing at Anna’s shoulder again. “Oh, all right. I’ll get up.” She laughed. That was much easier said than done. With a groan Anna rose to her feet, moaning as her body ached at the movement. She rolled her shoulders and stretched, trying to prepare her muscles for her to move again. At least she wasn’t trembling anymore. That was a bonus. As Anna stretched, she looked around, trying to take in her surroundings with her eyes (since she had already observed several things with her other senses). A tropical forest was directly in front of her, thick brush seemingly everywhere. Anna peered around, trying to find the shore that she had heard the waves splashing against, but she couldn’t see it. That was a shame. Still, Anna knew where she was supposed to go. Into the forest. That’s where the door faced and she was sure that somewhere in there she would be able to find Dodgson’s nest and family.

As she took a step toward the trees, Dodgson looked excited. Apparently he recognized this area. He was moving from one side to the other in front of her, chattering happily and looking all around himself. Anna smiled as she watched and followed him. It was nice to see him so happy. In fact, he looked like he belonged here. As they walked into the forest, Anna could hear the scuttles of little creatures- much as she had in the bog- but this time she didn’t see them. Dodgson was a little bit in front of her, running toward every sound and chirping at all the creatures, almost as if he were greeting them. By the time Anna got close to see anything, they were all gone. Watching him, Anna found herself grinning and shaking her head. She’d never seen Dodgson like this, happy and seeming so care-free. It was a new side of him and she absolutely loved it.

Every once in a while he would turn around and run back to her, nudging Anna affectionately. She would pet him lightly and he relaxed, walking beside her for a few moments. One time, he nipped at her jacket and pulled her to a tree. Anna looked at him curiously, and then reached forward to touch it gently. She jumped when Dodgson squawked loudly and then ran around the tree, looking upward in excitement. Anna looked up and noticed something- it looked like some kind of fruit- up in the tree. She heard a pop and looked where Dodgson was, but he was gone. Looking back up into the tree, he was knocking a few pieces of the fruit down. Anna jumped out of the way, not wanting to get hit by whatever it was. Then she heard another pop and he was beside her again, gobbling down two of the fruits quickly. Anna picked one up. It looked dirty, but edible and she bit into it, smiling when she realized what it was. Mango. Dodgson started moving again and Anna followed him, eating her mango and surprised by how much energy she got from it.

The further along they went, the more excited Dodgson became. His chirping became louder and he was apparating around, though not really going anywhere with it. One second he was in front of Anna, the next second he was behind her, or he popped from the left side to the right. To Anna’s relief, he never went out of her sight. She could just see herself getting lost here and really didn’t want that to happen. She was also relieved that he wasn’t just running in a straight line to wherever they were going. Instead he was running forward and backward, side to side, seemingly greeting every creature, plant and object they passed. He was obviously excited to be back home again.

Then she heard a light, tinkling sound that made her pause. “Dodgson,” she called softly and the bird popped, disappearing from the tree he’d been pecking at and reappearing instantly beside her. His head turned sideways, almost as if he were looking at her inquisitively. Anna gestured for him to follow her, surprised when he did so calmly. He didn’t seem nervous, so she didn’t think she was leading him anywhere dangerous, he just was content to follow her lead for the moment. She pushed her way through some thick, green foliage and then found what she’d been looking for.

It was a stream that made the soft, gurgling sound as it ran into a small pool of water. Water! Anna knelt beside the pool, looking up at Dodgson as she cupped her hands. Was this water safe to drink? He answered her unspoken question almost immediately, plunging his beak into the water as he drank. Anna watched curiously for a moment, wondering how he drank water with his beak, but the diricawl was doing fine and she was thirsty now. She dipped her cupped hands into the chilly water, lifting them to her thirsty lips and slurping softly as she eagerly drank. The water was cool and sweet. Anna couldn’t remember the last time she wanted water so much.

She dipped her cupped hands under the water once more, but this time she paused before she raised them out. Her mouth fell open as she look ed at herself. Her hair and face were covered in thick, grey ash. She lifted her hands out of the water, touching her cheek for a moment and staring at the stark difference between the color of her skin and the volcanic ash. She looked like a ghost. Her hands also showed the contrast of the ash against the skin on her arms. Anna started laughing, shaking her head as she looked at her reflection. She thought she’d looked bad after the First Task when she came out of the maze covered in scratches and blood from the various creatures she’d encountered. She’d take this ash over that any day. Dodgson looked at her curiously, then turned his attention back to the water. Now Anna was curious about the way she would appear when she left the arena, so she stood and looked down at herself. The top half of her body was covered in the ash. In addition to what she saw on her face, it clung to her clothes and skin and hair despite everything she’d else done with the task. From the waist down, the ash was gone, but she had splotches of dried mud on her pants. Well that was fun. Anna didn’t know how to feel. A part of her just wanted to be clean again, but she wasn’t going to waste time on that. She wondered how Emile looked when he exited the arenas, and how Elias would look later on.

Dodgson rose, done drinking, and looked at her. Anna moved forward and gave him a hug. It was weird to think that in just a little while he’d be home and she wouldn’t see him again after that. Really weird. Still, when he started moving through the brush and foliage again, Anna followed him. Once again, the further they moved, the more excited he got. After a few minutes he paused, looking up before he released a loud squawk. Anna watched him curiously, then jumped when she heard the sound echoing back. They were close!

At the returning sound, Dodgson started moving even more quickly, popping her and there as Anna tried to keep up with him. Now he was moving out of her line of sight, but he always came back to her. Then, he stopped popping around and moved to stand beside her. Anna walked with him, curious about what would happen next. A few seconds later, she pushed past a big plant to see a wide clearing with a large nest in the center. There were lots of diricawls (more than she could count) popping around in excitement. They obviously recognized Dodgson’s call and were glad to have him back. At the sight of him, the popping increased. Anna could hardly keep track of them. She froze, while Dodgson took a few steps forward and the other diricawls approached him, nudging him with their beaks happily and chirping to him cheerfully. Anna watched them with a smile. One diricawl looked at her, however, and gave an alarmed squeak. The others froze and their eyes bored into her. “Dodgson,” she whispered, though she didn’t know what he could do.

Her voice seemed to spark something in her diricawl and he left the others, approaching her as he squawked and chirped to the others. He nudged her with his head and she petted his feathers softly. The other diricawls watched the two for a few seconds, then she heard tons of popping sounds and was surrounded by the birds. She was being bumped this way and that, but not in a dangerous way. It was more … pleasant. Like they were welcoming her. After a few minutes of this, the birds seemed to calm down and move around their clearing with ease. Anna was pleased to find that Dodgson was still by her side. She stroked his feathers, starting to move towards the nest. When she arrived to it, she sat on the edge, looking at all the birds around her as Dodgson stood by her side. None of them seemed upset that she was sitting on it, which was a good sign, she thought. Anna watched the birds for a minute and then turned to look inside.

To her surprise, there was a group of diricawls inside the nest, surrounding the eggs and looking somewhat fierce. No wonder they didn’t mind her sitting on the edge. It wasn’t like she could do anything from there. She heard a pop and then Dodgson was inside the nest with her, tweeting at the other diricawls. One by one, they approached her and Anna touched them softly and gently. This seemed to be the key to getting to the jewel- which she could now see, since they’d moved. It was purple. After “meeting” all the diricawls in the nest, Anna slowly approached the eggs. The birds seemed a little tenser now, but Dodgson followed Anna closely and none of them did anything. She touched one egg gently, smiling at how warm it was. Dodgson made a low peeping sound at the other diricawls and Anna turned to look at them. At least now they seemed at ease. She made her way around the eggs toward the jewel slowly, touching them all gently and rubbing them for a few seconds before moving on. Then she got to the jewel. She looked at the diricawls around her. They were all watching curiously, but Anna turned her attention to Dodgson. “May I?” she asked, gesturing that she would like to take it with her. The diricawls tensed again, but one look from Dodgson silenced them all. They were deferring to his judgment. Anna looked at him, a pleading expression on her face.

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The diricawl stared at Molly Weasley, before finally allowing her to successfully take the purple jewel from their nest! As Molly exited the arena, Hermione was waiting for her perhaps a bit more anxiously than she would the other Champions. Anna was her niece after all, and she looked like she needed a hot bath, or six. "Anna!" she said, smiling as she saw the jewel in the girls hand. "Excellent, you'll be able to head up to the washrooms after you get your scores to wash off all the dirt and grime. If you need any first aid, Madame Blacksmith is in that gold tent over there," she explained. She watched as the girl made her way over to the judges table as she awaited her final score.

FINAL ARENA SCORE: 8
TOTAL SECOND TASK SCORE: 44

@annelise , feel free to post a final reaction, no word count necessary, then YOURE DONE

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Anna felt like she stared at Dodgson for ages, waiting for his response. The atmosphere in the nest was intense, but the other diricawls were simply watching Dodgson, who was staring at her. She nodded to him, forcing a reassuring smile despite the fact that she was nervous he would deny her this. Then he closed his eyes and lowered his head and the other diricawls stopped watching her, moving around once more and interacting with one another, popping around as they disappeared and reappeared at random, seeming unconcerned with Anna now. Anna grinned, running over to Dodgson and throwing her arms around his neck. "Thank you Dodgson. I'm going to miss you," she whispered, stroking his feathers one more time before returning to the circle of eggs and the jewel. Anna touched the purple jewel, sighing with relief when the other diricawls continued to ignore her. 

She turned and smiled at Dodgson, then picked up the purple jewel and climbed out of the nest. Now, to find the last door. To her surprise, Dodgson was walking beside her once more. He squawked to the other birds and Anna heard a few chirp in response. He continued walking and Anna followed, curious about where she was being led. She tucked the jewel under one arm and stroked Dodgson's feathers with the other. Before long she saw a familiar door. The way out. She and Dodgson walked to it slowly. Once they arrived, Anna laid the jewel on the ground beside it and turned to her friend. "Goodbye. Have fun with your family," she encouraged, giving him yet another hug. She felt Dodgson nudge her neck with his beak. Then she released him and he took a few steps backward. "Go on," she encouraged, smiling at him. The diricawl turned around and left and Anna bent down to pick up the jewel, opening the door and stepping through. 

The first thing Anna saw on the other side of the door was her aunt. She knew how terrible she looked, but she still grinned at the sight of Aunt Hermione. "Minister," she said with a nod, deciding she should be respectful since this was an official Tournament. 
"Ok," Anna turned and walked in the direction her Aunt directed, making her way to the judge's table. She didn't think she really needed to go to the healers. All Anna had were a few scrapes, nothing major. She waited at the table for about a minute while the judges deliberated with one another. 

Eventually one stood. "Miss Weasley, your final score is 44. Congratulations." They sat down and Anna smiled. "Thank you." She turned in the direction of the washrooms. It was time to get all this mud and ash off of her. And then ... then she planned on relaxing and sleeping and spending some time with her boyfriend. She walked into the washroom, feeling proud of herself for her performance. She did a pretty good job, especially considering how difficult the first task was for her. She made it!

---end thread---