FIIIIIIELD TRIIIIIP!!!

Lex skipped ahead of the other lions but not by much of a distance from what she could tell. Their footsteps behind her sounded near enough for her to know that she didn't lose them in all her excitement. As she got closer to the maze she broke into hopping. MAZES WERE FUUUUN!!!!!

Needless to say she was positively hyper by the time she got to the entrance. It showed in the way she turned sharply on her heel and grinned at the others. "This is gonna be so epic guys! Maybe this is like that Arithmancy class we had with the maze and the monsters!!!" And now she might have been bouncing a bit more. For now she couldn't see what this had to do with Ancient Runes but she was NOT about to complain.

This was more fun than squibbly letters on a parchment.

Lex whipped around again but could only take so many more steps before her attention was caught by a plank. Ooooo. "Come take a look at this." and she waited while she read the first riddle. “Our future selves call us from infinite pasts, and each night are eroded with our dreams.”

...Eh...?

"Well?" Any suggestions while she tried to think of something?

An now Tag slowly made his way over to the maze and wondered how much longer he'd have to wait for the student leaders? Anyway, he made his way but then stopped as soon as he saw Lex telling them to go over and look at the first riddle.

What really bothered Tag was the fact that they weren't allowed to use their textbooks. He wasn't a genius. But, he assumed with the help of his fellow lions he could figure something out? If not he could say one of the incantations.

The boy merely shrugged his shoulder. "Nooo." He answered her in a rather down voice. "But, maybe reading for key words would make it slightly easier to figure out the rune. Infinite pasts, future, and dreams, maybe?" Those seemed like key words to him. Besides that, at the moment he didn't have much to offer. He waited for the other's thoughts as well.

Sarah ran to jion th toehrs. She looked at the plank that Alexa had pointed to her and read it. She folded her arms and tilted her head lost in thought.

Maybe it was EWHAZ,moving forward, motion... nah, she crossed that out mentally. She read the thing again, then she heard what Tag said, "maybe it is a rune that encompasses all three, the past, present and future..." She mentally reviewed her notes. What mentioned it all or tied it all in, "how about Laguz, water is the symbol of the cycle of life and laguz is the ocean that represented to the Norse is life, death and a vastness of scale. Also the Ocean has a tied, so some people build sandcastles on the beach in the day and at night the tied comes and washes it away." that was by a long shot and a lot of twisting yet maybe it could work?

"It's Laguz," Alice agreed, squinting at the riddle thoughtfully. Having led everyone down there with the other Prefects and Captains, she'd paused to let the younger lions a little ahead before going in herself. And there was no need to explain why it was correct, right? Sarah had already done that. "I can carve it, if you want." Just using the Intaglio spell, right? She could do that. Unless anyone else wanted to.

But no one did, it seemed, so Alice pulled out her wand and did it herself. "Intaglio Laguz Laguz Laguz Laguz Laguz.." INTENT. Intent was present, okay? Strongly present. She kept repeating the name of the rune until it was neatly etched into the wooden block, as perfect as she could get it. When it finally moved aside, she looked back at everyone else expectantly.

Were they just supposed to keep moving now?

Further ahead, just one left turn away from the crowd of students, lied another plank with another carved riddle.

In the next minute they were joined by the others, Sarah went straight to cracking the riddle. Seeing as she didn't know the answer she'd just stand there and listened to them talk amongst themselves. Really she was just here to provide the motivation and such.

Lex stepped back once a decision had been come to and the rune was being carved in the wood.

She didn't know about anyone else but she valued her limbs and as much faith as she had in Alice she had just as much in the fact that that thing could carve her too. Once that was done away with she skipped ahead again but she didn't get very far this time either. Just after taking a left she ran into a plank.

"Hey guys! Another one! I don't know the answer to this one either!" Might as well put that out there while she was at it. No need to have them take the left assuming she'd already figured it out.

This subject wasn't liked because she was good at it and knew stuff, it was liked for the destructive aspect so no one could or should expect much--unless the rune reeeeeally stood out to her, then just maybe.

Life cycle and first whine. That sounded a bit religious to Tag. First whine, as far as he knew, had something to do with God and a dinner? He wasn't very good at knowledge of religion either, but it was as much as he knew. "Err, well the puzzle says something about life's cycle and before our first whine... Wait that's the wrong wine I was thinking of." Tag said as he smacked his head. Everyone else must be looking at him weirdly.

"Anyway, excuse that. It does mention a journey. An, as far as I can remember it might be Raihdo. I think the textbook mentioned a journey and progression and life lessons. So, I'm putting my money on Raihdo. Other thoughts are, obviously, welcomed as well." Tag said as he nodded at his fellow classmates.

He was just going to go with his 'key words' theory and listen to his classmates ideas as well.

The others were probably thinking it over too, that would explain the silence that followed. A silence that was broken the moment Tag spoke up.

Raidho...? Well it did talk about a journey...? She thought it through for a minute but couldn't shake the feeling that just maybe it wasn't all that accurate. Umm...Of the life's cycle we journey, Before our first whine. For some reason she couldn't see that much dealing with progression or life lessons so to speak...more like...

....

"What if the whine there refers to crying?" She asked a bit absentmindedly. "And that whole first whine...first cry...babies maybe?" She scowled a bit, running her eyes along each word again wondering just how much sense it made. Plenty? Not much? Just a little? She turned to the others for confirmation but didn't look long enough to see any nodding or thoughtful looks before she went eyeing the words again. "Think about it...life's cycle before our first whine. Life before....babies?" Before babies probably being before they were born. "So the womb then."

This time she nodded with a bit more conviction. It almost seemed right. Suddenly something hit her.

"Oh! That rune!!! That one rune--what's it's name again? The one and it talks about 9 and 9 symbolizing stuff including the 9 months of pregnancy??" Pregnancy happened before your first whine. She squeezed her eyes shut as if willing herself to mentally picture the same page she'd glanced that time. The thing with her memory was, it was selective, she needed to want to remember. "Ummmmm.....Haga...hag something..." She snapped her fingers as the word came to her. "Hagalaz!"

Lex looked to Tag. "I think we could try mine and if it doesn't work we try yours...?" At least she felt a bit confident in her answer. She unholstered her wand and took aim. "Intaglio hagalaz hagalaz hagalaz hagalaz..."

As the students move on according to their map, and maybe after coming to a few dead ends, they spot another riddle on another board.

She led all the little children past that and kept coming to dead ends, until one last turn when she spotted another riddle. "There! It's.. it's Wunjo," Alice decided, peering at it closely again. "It's the last rune in the first aett which belongs to Freya, so it'd be the last of the first." What else? "And Wunjo represents harmony. Also, It's somehow related to heaven, and the gods lived in heaven. Or something." Agreed? Lex carved the last one, so.. did Tag want to do this one? She stepped aside to let him through to the wooden block.

"All yours, leprechaun boy. Make it one heck of a carving." Okay?

How many dead ends did this maze have? And just how long had they been walking?? What if they never found their way out?? She wasn't ready to die without having another bowl of ice-cream--

Oh hey the next riddle.

Lex followed closely behind Alice, content to have her take the lead after running them into a few dead ends back there. Heh, yeah, it'd be best to let Alice go first. The Third Year peered over at the clue that the older girl had but there was no time for processing it because Alice had already guessed it and offered an explanation.

No arguments here. How Alice knew the first from the last in that...er...aett thing was beyond her. Again, she was just here for motivation!!!

"Yup, Wunjo, what Alice said, get to it." GRIN. She was already itching to start walking again. No monsters so far but she figured if they went deep enough they'd find something neat.

Lex and Alice were quite on the roll, Tag thought. He looked at both of them quite impressed, with how much detail Lex had put into her backing up her rune and how much detail and information Alice knew about the rune that she was allowing Tag to carve in. His eyes blink several times as he tried to process in the information. "Err, right. Wunjo?" Tag said slightly slow as his mind was still trying to understand Alice's mind.

The boy nodded slowly at Captain Alice and he stepped forward to the riddle. It was doing the incantations that were easy for him. So, this wouldn't be too difficult. "Intaglio Wunjo Wunjo Wunjo Wunjo!" The leprechaun said as he pointed his wand at the board and the rune carving itself neatly into it.

"That should do it." He said smiling back at the girls.

Sarah had decided to step back a bit and give the others a chance at solving the questions. She just nodded if she agreed and kept sielnt if she didn't. If they were about to do the wrong rune she would interfere.

Her team was good though so she never had much to worry about

At the end of the maze's path, after a fork and a left turn is the last of the puzzles that would take you outside.

Mazes amused her, really they did. You could be walking forever without really knowing where you were going and you got those near death experiences, even if they weren't real and you wouldn't actually die. The Professor was watching so they could be dramatic and flail and have a good time if they wanted to.

No flailing just yet though. For now they were fine. Despite having led them into a few dead ends she regained some confidence in her sense of direction (Felix would be so proud) and made the decisions at the forks in the maze. Nothing beat guessing, nothing.

Lex blinked as she came to the last puzzle. Was this the end of the maze...? Well then...that was fun while it lasted.

She took a look at the riddle and read it over a couple times while she waited on everyone else to gather round.

I start with loss. How many runes did that? Couldn't have been many...and that wolf bit. She'd read about a wolf--not particularly for runes but for a homework piece she'd handed in last term so now she was looking for a rune that had a wolf story to it too. Didn't that one guy sacrifice his hand to a wolf...to that um...Fenris Wolf...? Tyr was it? Teiwaz.

Also...

"I'm not sure, but...isn't the symbol for Teiwaz an up pointing arrow?" She asked aloud, just trying to piece everything together. It was...wasn't it? That would make almost everything make sense! The wolf, the always pointing north--oh and that rune dealt with...with...oh merlin. Um...justice, just like the riddle said!!! "I think we're looking at Teiwaz for this. I just don't get the 'start with a loss' part. What do you think?" She asked, looking to each of them.

Alice waited for the last block to move aside before walking with the rest of the Gryffindors to the last puzzle. She kept squinting at it thoughtfully while Lex talked, and everything she said got nods from her. "Yeah, it is. It's Teiwaz. The 'start with a loss' part is because that's the first rune in the third aett, which starts with a loss, because Teiwaz symbolizes a sacrifice or giving up something of some sort." Lex was just growing smarter by the day, wasn't she?

"You want to carve it?" she asked, looking back at the third year. "Or I could. Or Sarah could. Whatever works."

She was right? WOOT!!!!

See that squibbly writings and such that made no sense? She knew about you all...sorta. The point is, she KNEW, as far as what she was getting from Alice anyway.

Lex nodded at the explanation of the whole, starts with a loss. Something she would need to remember actually. So Teiwaz started with a loss and it was talking about sacrifice, justice, all that awesomesauce that she'd most likely forget again after they left the maze.

"I dunno." Lex finally answered with an overly excited shrug. The last riddle! They made it to the end! Did it matter who carved it?? "Go ahead if you wanna, or I could. Anyone could, just so long as it gets carved and we have Professor Botros pat us on the shoulder all proud like." Nodnodnod.

"His proud shoulder pats really are the best," she agreed seriously, nodding along to what Lex said. "You want one?" Of course she did, and Alice was sure she'd be getting shoulder pats other times, because reasons, so Lex could get one now. "You carve it, then, you figured this one out all by yourself." She only clarified things, see? Looking behind her to make sure she wouldn't ram into Tag or Sarah, she stepped back to make room for Lex to carve Teiwaz into the last wooden block.

Okay. Yes.

She could go now. Expectant looks for her.

Even Alice was agreeing with her. The man gave really nice shoulder pats that just screamed 'YOU'RE MY FAVOURITE, OKAY???' and she was happy to go with this theory, 'cause you know why? She got a shoulder pat before!!!! DUH!

"I do actually!" In response to the wanting of the shoulder pat. "They're very nice, I'm sure you'll agree." Alice got shoulder pats too, but she didn't mind because the Professor wasn't her father so she didn't mind sharing.

Oh! And she got to carve! She beamed over at Alice for reminding her that she did figure it out. "Okay!" She waited for Alice and the others to step back then she raised her wand. "Intaglio Teiwaz Teiwaz Teiwaz Teiwaz..."

Neat! "All done!"

"Teiwaz," she reminded the third year, stepping back to make room for Lex to carve the rune into the board neatly. Alice waited for the wooden block to slide aside and make room for them to pass afterwards, because that was what it was supposed to do, yeah? She turned to make sure that Sarah and Tag and whoever else were still with them and not lost somewhere else in the maze before offering Lex a proud shoulder pat of her own and slipping past the last puzzle.

They were meant to end up outside now, yeah?

Was that where they were?

Ab grabbed his staff closer to his chest and called out, "All students take off your bracelets, and join me when you see me as soon as the illusion goes away." They would see him with the unicorn and the Hufflepuffs easily considering that the four mazes were side by side. He was going to tell them about the puzzles and then dismiss them.

ooc: - post your character in the Hufflepuffs' maze, please, where the professor will announce the results to the competition and reward with points.
- As soon as your character takes off their bracelets, the maze will disappear and they will find themselves in the Grounds, not far from where the other houses are.