"Interesting theory. Keep in mind though, the Kappa is a dark creature, a water demon. Perhaps it was created with a Clabbert and something else as inspiration."

"Some do look like monkeys, and they all have that hole in their head, yes."

"Some do, yes."

"Thats right."

"There are, yes. Thats exactly right."

"Be careful you don't say that in front of the Kappa." Truebridge advised.

"Thats right Marie." Truebridge agreed.

"Exactly right."

"Yes Annie, thats right."

Annie. Humm. Truebridge shook himself and focused on the lesson again.

"They do indeed. I'm not sure about the breath but thats something else that we can ask the Kappa." Truebridge suggested. "It is worth mentioning at this point that they are extremely well mannered, so if you are polite to them, they will be polite in return. I am sure you can imagine it does not do to offend a Kappa, particularly when many of you aren't much bigger than it is."

--

"Alright so there are several varieties of Kappa, the most common variety is that which simply resembles an oversized, scale-covered monkey, with the webbed hands and depression in the top of its head. The Kappa we have visiting today has a shell much like a tortoise, is scaled and of a greenish hue, with a beak and hair, though it is bald where its depression is." Truebridge described.

"So, today we will be working on a new spell, one which takes advantage of their weakness for cucumbers, but knowing their other characteristics, what other methods do you think there might be that could be used to defeat or escape from a Kappa?"


ooc: Want a mental picture? Try this one on for size. Source credited within image.

Be creative with your answers. We'll be covering three methods, but I'd like to see what you can come up with.

Ellie crinkled her nose at the description. No matter the variety, they sounded ugly.

"Punch 'em in the nose!" she said, joyfully. Like that was completely the right answer. And the most obvious one. I mean, that's what you do to sharks, right? So.. kappa..shark...kappa...shark.. What's the difference, really? They're both sea creatures OUT TO GET YOU!!!

Mina thought for a moment as she pictured the Kappa decribed. Okay, it wasn't exactly how she had imagined it but she didn't ever really think she would encounter one. Her mother used to scary her with stories, but was was usually to her siblings and all, but the image in her head was a bit on the unpleasant side.

Those thoughts aside, she bit her lip and raised her hand. "Well, since Kappas are polite as long as you are polite to them, one could catch them off guard with being overly polite. You bow to them and they bow back. So if you keep bowing the water a top the indentation will drain and that will leave them helpless," she voiced. Yes, it was redundant as they had already talked about it, but it was a feasible idea and no violent. "Okay maybe one could trick them as well. They do like games of skill."

Gold raised a hand. "Metallic objects," she said, simply. "I've often seen that people find them one of the easiest ways to overcome a Kappa, if they can't get their hands on - or don't know how to conjure - a cucumber inscribed with their name. Kappas have a natural tendency to back off from metallic objects. They won't harm you, if they can sense that you possess one - and, even if you don't, it's easy to transfigure something into a metallic body." Defence meets Transfiguration.

"Other than that, I find that two of the easiest ways out are fire and noise, sir. Fire's easy to conjure, doesn't give a Kappa time to think or work out an escape route, and makes sure it stays away from one. Noise can be the most effective way out, if you don't have a wand. Kappas detest abrupt, loud noises, and that's where a person can bring his or her surroundings into play." Creativity in defence. One of her strengths, as Gold liked to think. "Clank things together, throw something into a wall. Or, if you do have a wand, use that to this effect."

Quietly, she lowered her hand.

Cela put her hand up, only half paying attention to the class. "You could siphon the water from the dent in their heads with Tergeo, professor." Simple and effective.

Patroclus wouldn't deny that he found the image painted by the class of a Kappa, to be positively hideous. And to add to that, some ugly animals had nice personalities, however the Kappa did not, in fact they prefered to eat people.

Hideousness aside Patroclus was not one to attack an animal, however if he had too, for his safety or that of others, he would. "Sir if you were able to block them off from the water, you could use the hot-air charm to dry them out, evaporating all the water from their head depressions. Or you could catch them with a rope, and let the sun dry them out!."

Patroclus hoped the spell they were to learn would be more friendly!

A clabbert...and something else? Oh, now she was curious and wanted to find another creature that could have any 'relation' with the kappa. But, alas, it would have to wait until later for now, they were moving on.

Hmm, ways to defeat or escape from a kappa. Patroclus' suggestion actually made her remember something she had said from Charms class. "Well, if you're really desperate and still have your wand on you, you could use the drought charm." Bahaha! And since they lived in ponds and such, it wasn't such a big body of water to disappear. Unlike a lake... "So, the Kappa would pretty much freak out that the only water they have around them is the stuff in the depression on their head, leaving you time to escape."

Yea, that would make Evelyn freak out if the only remaining source of her strength was a small amount of water on her head. "Or, you could just...avoid lakes, ponds, and rivers altogether. Then you'll get nowhere near kappas and have to try to escape from them." Problem solved right there!

"Hmm.. You could do something with the water on their head. Or you could just bring a bunch of cucumbers before leaving.." she said. Ahehehe.. Not much of an answer but oh well.

"Well, that might offend them and you really aren't much bigger than a Kappa yourself, Ellie. You'd be better off being wary of getting close enough to do that."

Pause.

"Though... it can be very satisfying punching the right target." Yeah he was thinking of the headmaster, who he liked but it had definitely felt good.

"Good yes. Being polite and tricking them into bowing, or otherwise tricking them in other ways is a good way of facing a Kappa."

"Especially depending on what metal you use. Those are some good creative answers."

"Very good. Simple and effective." Truebridge approved, unaware he was echoing Celandine's inner thoughts about her own answer.

"Evaporating the water. Yes. And... the rope idea is... interesting." A little cruel, but still interesting.

"Droguht charm, yes thats a good idea."

"Good yes. Taking advantage of what you know about them is important. Now, Celandine mentioned one of the spells that I'd like you to keep in mind, Tergeo. That spell siphons up liquids and mess, so assuming your aim is good, it can be quite effective. Conjuring spells would include any fire spell you can think of; Incendio is your best bet, but we're also going to learn one which takes advantage of the cucumber weakness. Now, cucumbers are food so it is important to keep that in mind. Conjuring a cucumber or a vegetable with this spell group will conjure a semblance of that vegetable. It won't have any of the nutritional properties of a cucumber, and while, if you're good enough, it will taste like a cucumber, it isn't considered food as you can't survive off it and it won't nourish you." Truebridge explained, splashing a little bit.

"The spell is in two parts. Conjuring the cucumber and having it inscribed with your name. You need to focus on the cucumber, because the incantation will conjure all sorts of different gourds, cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini or squash. You can actually use this spell for conjuring carved jack-o-lanterns with enough practice. You also need to focus on the engraved aspect, in this case your name. These two things; what you are conjuring and what is inscribed are the part that often needs practice. Those of you who are NEWT students should have little to no difficulty with this spell, OWL level students, it might take a bit more work, but you'll get it fairly quickly. First through third years, it is a good focusing exercise and many of you may have trouble with it at first, but do try your best."

Listening?

"The incantation is cucurbita intaglio. That is Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo, and the wand movement is an elongated loop, almost an oval shape. Try it out now."

ooc: click the links for pronunciation if you're interested. You'll need your sound up.

Feel free to have your charrie accidentally conjure the wrong kind of vegetables (of the ones listed above) or misspell their names etc. Have fun and watch for the Kappa which will be brought in SOON.

Alex listened and took notes on the spell, wait a second.. wasn't conjuring more of a Transfiguration, her best class when it came to spell work? Well.. this would be interesting Alex thought to herself sarsatically. She practiced the wand movement first after she got that down she sounded out the words carefully.. then she rose her wand did the elongated loop and sounded out, "Cucurbita Intaglio." ..And out came a .. small squash which was not a cucumber... at all. Alex stared at the squash and coughed.. well at least she got something right? "Umm.. How do we make the conjured item go away if we conjure the wrong thing?" Alex asked raising her hand poking her squash with her wand before stopping wand safety first after all... she put down her wand and poked the squash.. thingy bob with her finger.. it didn't even feel like it was a squash more fuzzy.. at least it looked like one... wait what name was on it she thought moving it over on the Squash was the name.. Alexzandria.. well oops Alex thought lightly... she clearly wasn't picturing it clearly at all if she had missspelled her name so badly that it was Alexzandria and not Alexandrie..

Conjuring cucumbers didn't sound all that difficult, Mina reasoned to herself as she pulled her wand from its holster. She was pretty sure that she could manage that, but for some odd reason she felt the engraving would give her issues. It might be a bit of a stretch for her and all, but it was worth a try for sure.

Extending her wand out, she practised the wand movement as she silently recited the incantation in her head to herself.

Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo
Elongated loop
Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo
Elongated loop

Taking a breath, she rolled the wand in her hand. Elongated loops weren't hard and she thought she had the incantation pretty much down, but it was the moment of truth really. Could she get it right or what?

Thinking of nothing but a cucumber, she again extended her wand and cast Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo in a clear voice as she made the elongated loop and pictured her name....

*poof*
A zucchini with 'Mani' engraved on it.

Well that so wasn't what she was thinking about. All the letters were there, but not in the right order. Frowning a bit, she huffed slightly and picked up the zucchini. Well, if she had wanted a zucchini, this would have been a good one. Shaking her head, she dropped it and when back to just thinking about cucumbers and her own name.

Cucumber engraved with 'Mina'...

Mm. That was lots of information. The good thing about it was that it wasn't hard to digest. Gold, hand underneath chin as she listened, gave a little nod. To nobody in particular.

Kind of to herself.

Cucurbita intaglio. Elongated loop, almost oval. Well. Gold was pretty sure she could do that, with ease. In fact, it would be a surprise if she couldn't. She had almost finished her second last year of primary magical study, she ought to be able to do a simple, defence spell like that, no? She gave the wand movement a try, a simple, almost ovular loop. Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo, she said, almost to herself.

Cucurbita intaglio.

Squash?

Great.

Gold vanished it. Time to try again.

"Do you know Evanesco, the vanishing spell?" Celandine offered politely, overhearing Alex ask about getting rid of the vegetables.

Alex blinked before nodding, "Yeah, i've used it a few times. I just didn't think getting rid of the.. squash would be as easy as an Evanesco." Alex told her before picking up her wand and chanted out, "Evanesco." to get rid of the horrible squash infront of her. Maybe she should practice on actually picturing what she wanted first before attempting the spell a second time.

Arya had gotten distracted while the class went on disscussing facts about the Kappa, most of which she already knew from reading one of her books on magical creatures. Sitting on the desktop, her legs swung as she idly twirled her wand between her fingers. It was only when he had begun to teach them a new spell that she focused all her attention back on the lesson.

Listening to him pronounce the incantation and preform the wand movements, she nodded when he was done. She decided to first work on the incantation since the wand movement was fairly simple. "Cucurbita.... cue-CUR-bit-a.....cuuuucuurbita.....cucurtbiiita....cucurbita. .." She worked on the first incantation, repeating it until she felt comfortable pronouncing it. Then she moved to the second word. "Intaglio....In-TAL-yo......iiiintaglio....intagiloooo.....intaglio... "

Comfortable the both parts of the incantation, she then moved to the wand movements. Repeating the elongated loop that Truebridge had showed them earlier, she work on it until she felt comfortable. Once she had practiced the spell as much as possible, she focused on a cucumber before casting. Arya made an elongated loop with her wand and said, "Cucurbita intaglio."

The young girl had conjured a gourd, but it wasn't a cucumber. It was a small yellow squash. Staring at the squash for a moment with a somewhat vacant expression, she placed it beside her and continued to practice.

Bahahaha!!

They were going to conjure up some fake fruit.

Destiny might have enjoyed the spell much more if it worked to conjure tomatoes instead of cucumbers, squash and pumpkins. Sure, she could throw them at people, but it would just be funnier with a tomato. Ha! She would wait until someone told her a stupid joke, then BAM! She would conjure a tomato and throw it at the person.

Or she could go to the astronomy tower and throw them down at people.

But she didn't need to conjure tomatoes for that to happen.

Pulling out her wand, she practiced the elongated loop movement, while pronouncing the incantation in her head. Why did these spells have to be so hard and long? It was like the spell didn't want people to remember it. Cue-CURRRR-bit-a In-TALLLL-yo. Cue-CURRRR-bit-a In-TALLLL-yo. Yeah, there was no way she'd remember that spell..unless she wrote it down..unless she forgets to write it down.

She'd do it later if she remembers.

Feeling as confident as she was going to feel with this spell, she concentrated on a cucumber with her name engraved on it. Moving her wand in the elongated loop movement, she said the incantation, "Cucurbita intaglio." Glancing down at her desk, she smirked as she saw the cucumber sitting on top. Ha! She was the cucumber conjuring QUEEN! Picking it up, she was going to show it to Evelyn, until she noticed the engraving on it. "Denise?" she muttered, glancing around the room. She didn't know anyone with that name, so how did she get their cucumber!? Nudging Evelyn a little bit, she held her vegetable out so her friend could see, "Someone is playing a trick on me."

They were probably jealous of her dinosaur rain boots.

....Seriously?

Just when she thought she could get away from having to do Transfiguration spells, here's one that pops right up in her favorite class, successfully making it...not her favorite class at the moment.

Instead of picking her wand back up to practice the spell, Evelyn took her time to write down notes and the actual spell, wand movement, and whatever was necessary to remember as she lightly tapped her toes in the flooded classroom water; enjoying the little splash sounds it was making. However, once she was done writing, even though she tried her hardest to make sure to get every letter as perfect in her neat cursive handwriting as possible, the Slytherin knew it was time to do the spell. Truebridge would probably be wondering why she was...still writing anyways.

Picking up her dark ash wand, she lazily drew oval shapes in the air before glancing over at Destiny when she did the spell. Denise?...

...BAHAHAHAHA! "Nice." A few snickers later however, the black eyed third year turned back to her own task. Or at least tried to. "It's your wand. It's going against you." she whispered to Destiny as she leaned over slightly to do so before straightening back up again. Rofl! "And it's going against you because you are eating too much chocolate..."

Hopefully, out of all the times Destiny took things seriously...that she would this time.

Now, onto the spell. Cuurruuugula ingenius. Whaat in the world was the spell again? Looking back in her notes, Evelyn almost rolled her eyes at herself when she saw she was waaay off. Right. Cucurbita intaglio. "Que-cur-bit-uh In-tal-io. That is sooo not random..." Why did these spells have to be so weird? Yeesh!

"Cucurbita intaglio." she said a split second after she tried sounding it out, creating the long oval shaped wand movement in the air as well. She was expecting some kind of mutated vegetable to be on her desk, but surprisingly...there was a cucumber. Waaait, there just HAS to be something wrong. She never did these spells without there something wrong on the first try. Rolling it over....

She didn't know whether to laugh or sigh in frustration. "Denise?" Perhaps, she should think of her own name next time.

Cool!

This would be fun she thought. Conjuring a cucumber sounds weird but cool too!
Bringing out her wand she concentrated.
"Cucurbita Intaglio!" and out came a.. SQUASH!
"Oof.." Dianna caught the squash but it was big and heavy and so she fell. "Hey it has 'Anna' written on it." she said as she stood up.

Okay, so now we're gonna comjure vegitables with are name on them, right. So different, but intriguing, lets give it a try.

She took her wand out and waved it in the elongated loop formation trying to imitate the professor and concentrated. "Cucurbita Intaglio!" Then cefore her eyes appeared corn with her name on it. Huh, what, thats not right, I need cucumber, guess I'm gonna have to try again. She put down the corn and decided to try again. She imitated the professor wand movent of an elongated loop once more and concentrated harder. "Cucurbita Intaglio!" This time she saw what looked like a cucumber untill she smelled some thing sour. She knew this what not a cucumber, but she was was closer.
Dang, so close, am I ever gonna get this right, only one way to find out.

Cela watched the demonstration and shrugged. She could do it. She didn't even bother to say the incantation out loud, just went right for the non-verbal. Cucurbita Intaglio. Her wand traced an elogated shape, almost like it was the outline of a cucumber really, and there it was. Cucumber.

Celandine Elodie Toussaint's cucumber.

Ohhh Defense Against the Dark Arts had become a cross over with Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology and Transfiguration! Gah as if they didn’t already have enough stress!

Patroclus listened to the spell as Truebridge enunciated the incantation breaking it into syllables for them, then performed the wand movement. It was a rather different sounding incantation, it had a Spanish sort of feel to it, which Patroclus very much liked, consider he spoke the language.

He practiced the wand movement, an elongated loop, finding it quite simple to perform; it was time to move onto the spell.

“Q-ker-bi-terrr Italiano” the boy spoke tripping on the seconded word. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, he was completely mortified as there on the desk before him was a pepperoni sausage, with the name “Patrizio!” clearly etched into its side.

The boys head whipped from side to side, checking to seen no one had seen his mistake. If there was someone named Patrizio, he had a sausage for them, but he did not have a cucumber for the Kappa.

"So are sharks," she said pointedly, nodding her head. Sharks were actually bigger than herself. And she felt pretty confident that she would punch one if it ever came near enough.

Ellie listened to the directions. An oval, huh? Elongated oval... like a cucumber? That was an elongated oval. She quickly freed her wand from it's holstery trappings before the thought escaped her, and traced an oval in the air. Like a cucumber.

Now the incantation, THAT was the hard part. Cucurbita Intaglio. Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo. She mouthed the words. Cue, like cucumber. Cur, like curry. Bit, like 'it bit me'. A, like...a. Ha. Why were spells soooo darn funny! Couldn't they ever be like NORMAL words? Like 'cucumber that says Ellie'. And POOF. There was a cucumber that said 'Ellie'. And would that even matter? Ellie versus Eliana? Because she wouldn't like the feeling of being reprimanded by a cucumber by it calling her 'Eliana'. Only her mom called her that. And only when she was in trouble. Which, yeah, happened a lot. But that's not the POINT.

So, the hand goes up, "Would nicknames suffice?" Ha. She said 'suffice'. That was a word that would make her sound smart. People never used the word 'suffice' in real life.

Right. She had thought it would be a piece of cake, and ended up with a squash. It wasn't lack of concentration, Gold knew. It had to be because she had went straight for the non-verbal. She still had trouble with those, at first attempts. She ought to have tried it verbally, first.

"Cucurbita intaglio."

Of course. It was as she had expected. Gold picked up the cucumber, the one with her name inscribed in it, and shook her head. Oh, really. What a silly mistake to make. She knew she ought to have tried it this way, first. Still, a part of her had hoped that she could ace a non-verbal, at first try. She couldn't usually do that, and it wasn't a niiice thought.

Okay.

Cucurbita intaglio.

She had closed her eyes as she said the spell. Gold opened them now, and looked down. ZOMG! Cucumber! With her name engraved!

She could have laughed.

So they have to conjure their own cucumber. It would have been so much easier if he would have just had cucmbers here for them, then they could have just carved their names in them. Oh well, that wasn't the case so Marie would give it her best shot and see what she gets.

She said the incantation over and over in her head. Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo, Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo, Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo, Cue-CUR-bit-a In-TAL-yo. She then practiced the wand movement of an elongated loop. After practicing that several times she put the two together.

Cucurbita Intaglio then an elongated loop, Cucurbita Intaglio then an elongated loop. Okay, maybe she was ready to give this a try out loud and for real this time.

"CUCURBITA INTAGLIO!" She said as she moved her wand in an elongated loop.

And she got a... pumpkin. Well that wasn't what she was going for. Eh, at least she got her name right.

Next time she would concemtrate more on the cucumber.

Should be easy.

In fact Xylon would have been surprised if he couldn't get this right at the first try. He was in his last year of study after all. He moved his wand in the required elongated loop but did not say the spell, as if warming himself up.

Oval-like loop.

"Cucurbita Intaglio."

There it was. A cucumber inscribed with his name. Xylon tossed it into the air, caught it with one hand, vanished it and raised the same hand.

"Do we need the full name, sir?" He asked. "I mean, middle name as well?"

Idle curiosity? Nah. Real curiosity.