Ella stumbled through the other side of the portal and blinked several times, feeling as if she was in some kind of dream or something. Surely she hadn't just left Mr. Murdoch's and ended up here, in the woods!

Straightening up, the first year looked around her with wide eyes, taking in the many tall trees that covered the area around her. It was quite beautiful, what with the sunlight streaming through the branches and the light breeze. She breathed in deep, thinking Professor Jenkins had really outdone himself for this lesson.

As she continued to let her eyes wander, she noticed that she was standing on a pathway, and began to follow it. How on earth would she be able to know what tree was right for her rune? Was it some kind of feeling one got in their gut? Ella wasn't sure but she decided to scope them out with her eyes first.

Alyssa appeared on the other side of the archway and appeared in wooded area surrounded by many different types of trees. She noticed Ella has already arrived and waved over at her. Alyssa surveyed her surroundings. She could recognize some of the trees in the area. There were some English Oak trees, Willow, Elders and Hawthorn, to name a few. The Professor had told them to find a tree that would best suit the type of rune she was going to make.

Only thing was Alyssa wasn't sure which type of wood would best suit the rune she would be making, let alone which rune she would be making. So before making any decisions, she walked over to the work benches she had spotted nearby. She dug into her backpack for her textbook about runes and the types of wood were best used for it and started leafing through the pages. Reading through each page and reading the descriptions before turning to the next page.

Amelia blinked when she walked through the portal and found herself in a wooded area. She didn't know too much about Buckinghamshire, but she knew that it was an area that has been associated with magic and witchcraft for a long time.

Glancing around her for a little while, she finally decided that it was best she start moving. Noticing that she was on a pathway, she started walking forwards on it while looking at the different trees as she passed them. Since she was supposed to be making a Rune set here, she needed to find the right type of tree for her.

How would she ever figure that out? Would it be something she felt in her gut? Would it be that one of the trees would stand out to her? Would it merely be the tree that she liked the most? Or the one that she thought suited her personality the most? All this thinking made her head hurt.

Suddenly Nerida was no longer in Mr.Murdoch's hut and the next she was surronded by trees. She looked around and noticed lots of trees, some she knew like the Willow, Hazel, Elders, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Alders, Aspen, and even the ancient English Oaks. The Professor had told them to find a tree that would best suit the type of rune that they would be making.
How did you know if it was the right type of wood, was it this connection or something you had to guess on??

Nate teleported from Mr. Murdoch's hut to BuckingHamshire. He was lucky this time because he didn't fall down when he landed. He looked all around to see that only a few people teleported. Then he noticed the wonderous trees. Some were very tall. Some weren't as tall as some. They all shared one thing though: they were all magnificent. Just like how one of his fellow classmates liked ducks, he liked trees. He just couldn't help but stare at the trees. He couldn't decide about which tree he would use for his rune set. Well he would have to decide soon.

Kurumi's skin tingled as her body reappeared in its new location. She was sweating more than she had when she had appeared in the Groundskeeper's hut, which was to be expected since Kurumi hadn't even heard of the name of the place they were now at until now. Feeling faint, Kurumi immediately sat down on the ground and searched her pockets for the extra piece of chocolate she had taken before setting to carving Eihwaz again. Crossing her legs, Kurumi nibbled on the chocolate and took deep breathes to try and compose herself. Once she felt better, she finally took a look around and just took everything in. It was almost as if...they belonged there. Like something within the forest was calling to them, welcoming them even.

Resisting the urge to just flop back onto the pile of leaves she was sitting on, Kurumi pushed herself up off the ground and dusted her robes off. Time to get down to work.

Vickers landed with a barely audible thud, the sound muffled by the thick layer of leaves that have piled over the years on the forest floor. He gingerly peeked an eye open just like he did before but the sight that greeted him got both peepers to fly open right quickly. He was in a forest! So much like the ones he would explore back home. He stepped forward as he took in his surroundings. He couldnt help but smile. "So beautiful..." he murmured under his breathe, lost for a moment at the serene beauty and tranquility of the place.

Kurumi walked around a bit, looking towards the ground as she did in hopes of finding a suitable stick to use, but all she found were very small twigs. Those certainly would not be wide enough to use for a rune set, unless she was very very precise with her carving and used a magnifying glass afterwards to see which rune it was she was trying to use in a casting.

Hands in her pockets, Kurumi felt the ink vial that she had slipped into her pocket before traveling through the portal and sort of felt sick to her stomach again as she remembered the feeling when she had appeared here. Not nice...not at all. She really hoped that when she tried for her Apparation licence next term it wouldn't feel like that.

Kurumi stepped on something and felt a loud crunch underneath her foot. Oh snap...literally. Looking down, Kurumi saw what would have been the perfect stick for her runes, but she had not snapped it in half under her weight. Still, she bent down and and picked up the two pieces. Maybe she could salvage it? Tucking these under her arm, Kurumi decided to walk around just a bit more just in case there was a better stick lying around.

Alyssa thumbed through her textbook but after searching for awhile, she decided that she was going to go with her gut instinct. She instinctively knew that she would know that she had found her 'right' branch when she did. So she got up from her seat at the workbench, slung her backpack over her shoulders and started walking along the wooded trail, breathing in the clean air mixed in with the various scents of the wooden trees surrounding her.

As she walked she allowed her senses to attune to the surroundings her around. She could feel the magic all around her. She turned around to look behind her before turning around to look in front of her. She wondered whether the path she was walking on was one of the Old Ways. She had read about it in one of her great grandpappy's books. How the Old Ways were paths that the Old Ones, people who practised Old Magic like the Ancient Druids and Merlin, walked on. These Old Ways was protected by the Old Magic, which was thankfully good magic. Alyssa somehow felt that this path was one of them. She could feel that Old Magic singing in the air.

Alyssa stayed on the path, finding broken branches as she walked along it. But nothing seemed to 'shout out her'. She would pick up one and then another but she didn't seem to feel an infinity with any of the pieces of branches she was holding in her hands and returned the branches back onto the ground.

Then she felt something. First a tingling in the air and then she heard a strange sound. The soft sound of bells chiming. Alyssa looked around to see whether any of the other students were holding anything that resembled a bell, but no one was. She followed the sound until she came across an Rowan branch lying in the path in front of her. As she approached it, the sound of the bells got louder and the tingling sensation got stronger.

Alyssa reached down and picked up the Rowan branch and immediately she felt a tingling sensation run up her arm. The bells got louder in her ear before it disappeared. Alyssa knew that this would be the branch that she would be making her runes with. She felt an infinity with it. Thankfully, it was about the right length, at least 3 feet long.

She turned and was about to make her way back to the workstation when she remembered something that she had read. She turned back and looked for the Rowan Tree where the branch possibly fell from. She bowed to it and said,"Thank you for giving me this branch. I will put this to good use in honor of your gift." Then Alyssa bowed again, before turning and making her way back to the work bench.

The Ravenclaw was lost in the woods. Not literally, but his mind has completely lost track of what he was supposed to do and was rather taken with the different flora and fauna of the breathtaking place. He only came to when a dull throbbing pain on his hand brought him back to the present, lifting his bleeding finger with the bandage soaked in his blood. Carefully he fitted the bandage back onto the wound again, wincing that he wished he took a bit more of the bandages before leaving the Groundskeeper's hut.

Having patched his finger as best he could he looked up and saw the workbenches. Right gotta get back to business. Although he still felt like wandering about he tried to keep his tasks in mind. Gotta look for a nice length of wood, remembering from his Runes reading that it would be respectful to the tree if he took something thats already fallen and not having to chop one off.

Kurumi continued to walk around looking for another fallen branch that she could use, but none of them were really standing out to her. Leaning against a tree, Kurumi took a look at the two broken pieces she had picked up earlier and examined them. Judging from the coloring and the bark, she presumed that they were oak. Seemed rather fitting, actually. The oak was a common symbol of strength and endurance, which was something that the Gryffindor needed more than other things right now. Not only that, but it was also known as the tree of doors - meaning that it could symbolically help her find her next path in life. After all, when one door closes another one opens. Nodding, Kurumi decided that that settled it and began to walk towards her work station...

...until she saw Vickers dealing with his bloody bandages.

OH...MY...STARS...

Kurumi's knees buckled and her entire body wobbled a bit as her stomach felt queasy again. Shutting her eyes tight, not seeing it seemed to help a little, Kurumi stumbled forward towards the Ravenclaw. "Y-Y-You alright?" Like...did he need more bandages to hide help his finger?

Jory came through the portal and saw quite a few students had already arrived. He hoped he wouldn't feel sick as some as the others had but to his relief he felt fine.

He took in his surroundings. Trees were everywhere. The Puff couldn't help but admire them. "Nature is a beautiful thing,'' he thought to himself as he set off walking through the trees.

Vickers was looking at each tree, roughly matching them to what he knew of trees from memory. That one over there was a Aspen, a few steps down that way was an Elder... and there was one that looked like an giant bush-- that was Hazel.

He was making his way towards it when at the corner of his eye, he saw Kurumi stumbling towards him. With her eyes closed?

"I'm ok, its just a little...." the Eagle boy replied a bit bewildered, then reached out to Kurumi since she looked like she needed support. But he realized that he was reaching out to her with his bandaged hand. Errr right, touch Kurumi with a bloody bandage why dont you. He quickly drew it behind his back and reached out to her with his other hand. "Are you ok? Did you get something in your eye?"

Jory walked about admiring all the trees. But he was very drawn towards the clumps of Willow trees. He stood there staring up at their branches and leaves which were gently swaying in the light breeze.

He didn't know how long he was staring, but he was suddenly jolted back to reality. The Puff decided he would use a branch from one of these tress for his rune. Walking around carefully so as to not step on any branches, he looked for a good length one.

After a few minutes, he found a good one, which was about three and a half feet long. Jory headed over to the workbench to get started.

HOLY HARPIES WHAT WAS THAT?!

Kurumi jumped a little when she felt a hand on her, dropping her sticks to the ground. At least this also caused her eyes to fly own, so that was a good thing she supposed...until she noticed his bandaged hand again. "I'm...um...no...n-nothing in my eyes," she stammered, scrunching her nose and stupidly looking at his hand. Kurumi quickly bent down and picked up her sticks, tucking them under her arm again and...looking at his bloody bandage. "I-I...I just....don'tlikethesightofblood."

Kurumi swayed a little...and away from Vickers and his hand...and stumbled towards the station. Hopefully the professor would be able to, um, do something about all these bandages. Thankfully, the table wasn't too far away from them, so when she semicollapsed on it, she didn't have far to go. Lying the two sticks down, Kurumi cast a precise Severing Charm on both ends of both sticks to make them even.

Breathe Kurumi...just breathe...think of...pink bunnies or something...

Alyssa walked back to the workdesk and removed the back pack off her back and placed it on the bench next to her. She placed the branch onto the work desk and then pulled out a pencil from her pocket. She marked out 24 lines on the branch, making sure that they were evenly spaced out. Laying aside the pencil, she picked up the saw and started cutting the branch up into 24 2inch discs. However, when she was done sawing, she realized that she had 25 pieces instead of 24. She couldn't figure out how that could have happened, but she just shrugged and laid aside one of them. 'Who knows I may need it especially if I make a mistake carving one of them.' Alyssa reasoned to herself.

Placing the other 24 pieces in front of her, Alyssa then picked up her textbook, turned to the page showing the runes and studied them before she proceeded to pick up the first piece of wood.

Vickers felt flustered a bit, guilt written all over his face "S-Sorry Kurumi... I didnt mean-- I mean, I didnt know." he stammered, then quickly swung his bandaged hand from behind his back and shoved it into his robes pocket. He watched her wobble away towards the work benches and then sadly turned back towards the trees, unconsciously making his way towards the Hazel foliage.

He was close enough now to feel the tips of its branches scratch against his head. Raising his arm to lift the branches slightly, he peered at the base of the trunk to look for branches that hasnt been eaten away by decay. He spotted a few and crouched lower towards them, picking them up and examining each one until he found a branch that still looked solid enough for what he needs. Tucking it under his arm he crouched his way out of the Hazel foliage. Under the brighter light of the forest he checked the branch one more time and, satisfied with what he had, made his way towards the work benches.

Lowering her wand for a moment, Kurumi shook her head. "I-I-It's alright, Vickers." Honestly, how was he supposed to know that she was not too good around blood. Unless he had been in the seminar, when she had fainted at the sight of Selina covered in fake blood, then he really would have no prior knowledge. Honestly, it was a wonder the girl had survived Quidditch, especially with Carter as a captain and the ridiculous things that went on during practices. "B-B-But for your sake...you might want a new bandage..." Because his was...

Kurumi averted her eyes. It was something that she wasn't going to look at again or else she might not actually finish carving her runes. Speaking of runes, she needed to get back to doing that. So, rubbing the blush out of her cheeks, Kurumi picked up her wand again and began casting more Severing Charms, trying to keep each one about two inches apart as had been recommended. A few were a bit thicker than others, but all and all everything was even...for the most part. "Diffindo," she said, making the final cut that gave her her twenty-four runes. She still had a little bit left over, and wondered if they needed to make a blank rune as well. Maybe she would ask later.

Kurumi banished the dust and bits of wood that had gone all over the place from her spellwork and then set her runes out on her desk while she reached into her bag for her textbook. She was pretty sure that she could carve all the runes from memory, but some things were a little foggy and she figured that was mostly due to all the bleeding fingers in her vicinity.

Nate started to walk around to see all the different types of trees. He wasn't sure which one he wanted to use. So he just kept on walking. When he would get close to a tree he would drag his one hand along the scratchy bark. He saw so many types that he liked. English oaks, aspen, alders, and hazels. He just couldn't decide between the four trees. So to decide he went up to each and every one of those four trees.

Then he dragged his hand around the whole tree to get a real feel for it. He could take out the english oak. Then he realized the aspen wasn't right for him. So it came down between alder and hazel. He finally made the choice of the alder. Then he walked over to the nearest alder tree. Next he found a branch that fell from natural causes. Finally he carried the branch over to the work bench to make his rune set.

Ella waved back at Alyssa who she had heard come out of the portal. She then continued to walk down the path, careful not to venture to far. She couldn't help wondering if there was some kind of magic preventing the students from just wandering off. Though she wouldn't even think of it!

It was hard, finding the perfect piece of wood to use for her rune. Ella couldn't help but sigh because the amount of trees that lined the path was extraordinary. The first year decided that maybe an up close and personal approach would be better so she headed off the path to the right. She was just about to ask another student how they were going about choosing their own wood when her wide eyes fell on a willow tree.

The small badger approached the willow and a small smile crept onto her face. Why hadn't she thought of it before? A willow, like the one in her Grandparents' backyard. The one where she used to spend hours reading in the protective shade of its long branches. A willow was perfect.

Ella searched the ground around her, knowing it was now her job to find a branch long enough to use. There were several small twigs around where she was standing but those were no good. Venturing to the far side of the tree, Ella stumbled over something, landing on her bottom. "Ouch!" She said, rubbing her backside. She picked up the long branch and was about to cast it aside when...O__O It was perfect! She mentally scolded herself for almost throwing away the best piece of willow in her area and headed towards the workbenches.

The moment Daichi stepped out of the portal his mouth dropped. Where they really outside of Hogwarts?! Or was this an illusion to make them think they were? The Slytherin looked around as he walked further, away from the portal behind him. The many different kind of trees looked so real, the leaves under his shoes crushed as he stepped on it and the sun was very welcoming. Even the air was fresh! So they really DID left the school?!

He had to find his *special* piece of wood now right? Daichi took off his black/green robe and tied it around his waist. The back of the robe was shuffling on the ground as he walked and he ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. He should have styled it before coming to class. Walking through the forest yet never leaving the other students because he did not want to get lost, Daichi searched for his piece of wood he would use.

Alyssa picked up the first piece of wood and decided that the first rune she would make would be Fehu which represented success, good luck and hope. She opened up her textbook to the page where the runes were displayed, Alyssa picked up the gouging tool that was lying on the work bench, and following the design on the page, she proceeded to carve out the rune, FEHU. As she carved the design out, she concentrated on what the rune represented as well as chanted the it's name over and over again as she made it. "FEHU....FEHU...FEHU". Once she was done carving the rune, she laid it aside and picked up the next piece of wood to work on.

Reviewing her textbook, she picked the 2nd runic alphabet in the Elder Futhark, Uruz. Uruz represented physical strength and speed and it also represented change. This rune looked a little like an N. Picking up the gouging tool, she first looked at the design displayed on the textbook before she started carving out the rune. As she carved out the rune, she chanted it's name "URUZ...URUZ...URUZ" As she finished the last stroke, she cleared the wood dust of the piece of wood and placed it next to the Fehu rune which she had completed earlier.

Now for the third rune in the alphabet which was Thurisaz which was useful for attack and sometimes for tests. She looked at what the rune like. To her it looked like a sideways Triangle. Picking up her gouging tool and following the design on the page, she carefully gouged out the rune's design on the piece of wood. As she gouged, she concentrated on what the rune represented and said it's name "THURISAZ...THURISAZ as she gouged out the rune. Once she was done with the 3rd rune, she placed it next to the other two runes before laying down the gouging tool and taking a rest, stretching her arms and rolling her shoulders.

She had another 21 runes to make and Alyssa knew that she was running out of time but she also knew that in order for the runes to work, making them couldn't be rushed.

So she picked up the next piece of wood and her gouging tool and started working on the 4th Runic Alphabet in the Elder Futhark, and that would be Ansuz, the rune for communication, good fortune and the invocation of divine power and help. The rune looked like a slanted letter F, so picking up her tool, she bent over the piece of wood and following the design in her book, she carefully gouged out the lines that formed the rune. Just like the other runes that she had made before, she concentrated on what the rune represented and kept repeating it's name in her quietly,"ANSUZ....ANSUZ....ANSUZ.." She blew off the wood dust from her wooden piece before laying it next to the other 3.

After finding the perfect willow branch to use for her runes, Ella walked over to the workbenches where she noticed several tools and an empty spot for her to start working. She plopped down, placing her branch next to her and her bag on the ground. It would probably be useful to take out all the things she might need before getting started anyway.

The first year reached into her bag and dug around for her Ancient Runes text. Finding the book, she placed it beside her. She attempted to keep the pages open to where the different runes were pictured but the light breeze kept blowing them around. With a sigh, the first year circled the workbench area, looking for rocks. Finding two good sized ones, Ella placed them gently on the pages so that the book remained open. The badger also pulled out her wand, placing it in the center of the two pages where it wouldn't get lost.

Next, Ella eyed the different tools that were available to her. She pulled one of the saws over as well as a gouge tool. The first year wasn't certain that she wanted to use her wand as she wasn't as used to doing the spell work as she was with working with her hands. She didn't go for the paint though, knowing that unfortunately her own blood would be better in this case.

Now that Ella had her space set up, she pulled the branch towards her and eyeballed it, double checking that it was big enough. Then she decided she could finally get to work.

WHen Nate walked over he had to start preparing for the runes et that he was about to make. He went over and got a saw and a gouge tool. He didn't mind if he used his own blood. He'd just have to make them fast before the blood he would use would dry out. Then he would have to prick it again. Which could cause so much damage. Then he ran back to his workspace. He checked to make sure he had everything he would need. Book check and wand check. Saw check and gouge tool check. (Jus in case his magic would fail.) He then realized he might need some paint. So he ran back over and ot the paint. To check everything off he got blood and red ochre paint. Then he grabbed his textbook, and started to look at the runes.