Plants, branches, and foliage!

She had just told them the answer right? ...Or wrong. Melanie saw movement in the vivarium! She tilted her head. It looked like a branch was peeling. It couldn't be the plants that she was talking about though, because they were in Care of Magical Creatures class. She squinted, leaning forward a little.

Melanie raised her hand as she spotted the wood moving around freely. "Professor, is it a Bowtruckle? Or maybe a Dugbog?" she guessed, still looking at the vivarium curiously as she spoke.

"Could it be a Bowtruckle or a mandrake?", Fee half said half asked raising her hand.

Freya raised her hand "Freya Salvatore Slytherin" she said "Umm..That would be a Bowtruckle or a Horned toad, Professor" she added looking at the vivariums carefully.

'See me after class' was enough to plaster that stupid grin back on Salander's face. "Yes Ma'am. " he replied. Oh yeah not even a herd of Clabbert Kelpie Creatures are gonna stop him!


Salander leaned closer to the vivarium as the Professor asked the class what the Creature was

Its a.... its a.....

".... a stickbug."

A very large stick bug, with eyes so piercing Salander decided to back off ever so slightly. He looked back as he could hear the rest of the class giving their suggestions "A Bowtruckle?" he wondered looking up from the Creature. "Uh Professor, what is that?" he asked pointing to the jar in the Professor's hand that got the Creature all excited.

Maya was glad to hear the students had some idea what could live among the foliage and sticks. "Good answers, everyone." She moved over to the vivarium on the left side. "Some of you guessed correctly - in here we have...Dugbogs." No need to mention they were babies and would likely not hurt or attack the students. Likely.

"Can each of you tell me one thing about the Dugbogs?" Sure, she had heard some of the students answer that already - but Maya was sure she hadn't asked them. It was good to repeat things, makes it easier to learn.


Now she moved over to the right side vivarium. "Also...what sort of creature do you think we have here?" Hm? "And no, it's not Bowtruckles."

Trixie raised her hand to answer the Professors first question. The one about the Dugbogs. What a random name that was though....

"The Dugbog has Sharp teeth and finned paws which allows it to easily hunt its victims, usually small mammals like mice" Trixie stated. She wasn't sure whether it had been mentioned before but she was just gonna say it anyway. It was true wasn't it? That was all the Professor was after.

She eyed what else was in the tank but choose not to answer in fear that she wouldn't have guessed it right.

Riley knew something about Dugbogs. "Professor Dugbogs are found mostly in Europe and North and SOuth America." the Gryffindor nodded.

He then looked more closley at the second box, what would be like a bowtruckle? They lived in wood or looked like wood. "Professor, are the second creatures wood nyphs?" he asked eagerly? He had heard about them when he visited France. Now he was excited to see them if they were.

See there? They were too far away! Couldn't they go up to the vivariums and see what's in them? Evelyn would be able to tell then!

"Dugbobs..." Huh? Small mammals? Eating them? Eesh, remind her to keep Poof away. She had almost completely forgot about that fact. "They particularly like Mandrakes for some reason." Mmhmm, now that THAT was done, she could go onto trying to figure out what was in that tank.

Eh. She couldn't tell!

Brant raised his hand. "Professor, I believe that a Dugbog is like a peice of wood, or it looks like one. It has sharp fingers and teeth and they like to live in bogs or marshes. It likes to eat small creatures like... erm.. mandrakes." he said while thinking about eating a mandrake. "It was so disgusting to eat mandrakes and they are very loud and ugly." he thought.

Louisa blinked. Dugbogs? Weren't those of which had sharp teeth and bite humans' ankles once they were close enough. Oh no. She raised her hand, "They have finned paws.." Which why they shouldn't be out of the bag. Nervous smile.

Well, the other creature wasn't a bowstruck nor a flobberworm as she tried to guess. "Could it be Knarl?" She heard a lot of them but never saw one. It'd be exciting to just... take a look from far away.Right? o__o

"It attacks small mammals, Professor." Sophia said, with her hand rasied slightly. "It is fond of mandrakes." she said, quietly. Mandrakes bugged her. They were so annoying and just so weird.

Whaaa--? A Dugbog? No, that was no Dugbog.

Well, if she says it is...shrug.

And then to the other tank...Treyen shrugged again, "There's some plants in there" he said, without further enthusiasm, but with a raised hand.

It was true. There were plants inside that vivarium. Smirk.

She had read part of the textbook, but she couldn't really remember what a dugbog was, and as for the other container, well she had no clue. But she was just a little bit scared of the professor, and she didn't want her to think she was a complete dunder head, "think, Think", she thought to herself, until finally something clicked.
so she raised her hand and said, "Emmaleigh Swynford, from H-hufflepuff ma'am," Although she had already met the professor, she figured she should introduce herself again, since she already forgot her name once before. "and I b-believe a dugbog likes m-marshes, hence the 'bog' part of its n-name,"

Adeline quickly started thinking and said "Its that wood fairy I think, the names at thetip of my tounge but it wont slide off!" she said.

"Yes, that is correct, Miss Malfoy."

"Exactly, Mister Riding. You might have noticed that earlier, before they stirred."

North America. "Very good, Mister Sinclair." Maya missed the mexican dugbogs. Heh. "No, there are no wood nymphs here."

"Exellent answer, Miss Shepard. Indeed they find the Mandrakes to be very tasty."

"Yes, marshes are their natural habitat. Very good, Miss Greenwell."

"Precisely, Mister DeVacie. Good answer."

"Yes, precisely. Their defenses are very strong..." They better be careful around them. "And no, it's not a Knarl."


"The Dugbogs we have here are not fully developed yet, but don't think they are not strong. Baby Dugbogs have been known to get quite fierce." Don't think for a minute they won't bite your finger off if they want to.


"Yes, that is correct, Miss Lombardi." Maya nodded in approval.

"......yes, there are plants. Highly observant of you." Hm.

Ah, lookit, that girl. "Very good, Miss Swinford."

"No, Miss Morey, there are no wood fairies here." Hehe.



Maya gestured towards the right vivarium.
"These are actually 'Carasius Morosus', a creature that the muggles like to call 'Walking Sticks'." Maya looked at the class, wondering if she'd see a flicker of recognition at the name. "They seem very much alike our Dugbog friends here, aswell as bowtruckles..." Which could be a bit tricky. Or not.

"So how will you all be able to see the difference?" Maya positioned herself in the middle of the two tanks. With a flick of her wand, she cast obscuro over everyone - making a blindfold cover the eyes of each student momentarily. Maya needed to change the positions of the tanks.

Flicking her wand again, the blindfolds dissapeared. "Allright. The dugbogs and walking sticks have changed places. I need you to tell me what creature is where." And the trick is? "Grab a creature, carefully because they bite, and tell me if it's a dugbog or walking stick. Please wear your protective gloves. If you have none, you can borrow these." A basket full of gloves appeared by her feet."I assume you know what characterises the dugbog, so this should be easy for you."

"Well, let's go!" Don't be lazy, children!


OOC: Have your character approach the vivarium, pick up a creature and let Maya know what kind of creature it is and how you came to that conclusion. Feel free to get attacked by a dugbog (or walking stick) - BUT remember the dugbogs are babies, they can't harm you brutally. Anyone RPing in a gruesome way will be subject to pointloss/detention. Aaaaaaaaaaaaand be creative! =D

Haha!
 

Riley was saddened slightly by the lack of wood nymphs, this class was back to boring Care of Magical Creatures again. *siigh* So the other animals were much less exciting than what he though they were, muggle-named walking sticks. Muggles truely were cleave, weren't they?

"Whaaa?" Riley started to shriek as his eyes were covered with a spell from the professor, was she setting them loose on them without being prepared?! Oh no it was ok. Ooh they were going to be playing a sort of game? That could be cool. Riley stepped forward with the others and then found out what they had to do. THEY HAD TO TOUCH THEM?!

Riley grudgingly took a creature and felt it crawl around on his hand, its feet making distinct prickly feelings on his forearm, just above his gloves. He looked closer at he feet and then spoke to the Professor. "Professor Saylen, my creature is a Dugbog, I can tell by the finned-feet on him, see!" he pointed with his other hand.

In his excitment for hopefully being correct, Riley lost his concentration on the bug and it hopped onto his face and bit him clean on the nose! "OOWWWWWWWWW!!!!" Riley jumped back and crossed his eyes as he stared at the Dudbog on his face. "GET HIM OFF!!!" he cried stomping around and then falling back on the seat of his pants into the muddy ground.

Emmaleigh smiled as the professor complemented her answer. She paid close attention to everything she was saying, and quickly scribbled note onto her parchment. The charm the professor cast startled her, and she let out a small gasp.

Gloves. she needed her gloves. Em dug through her bag for her protective gloves. She knew to bring them, even if the professor didn't tell them they needed the gloves. She had seen Professor Saylen test the students that day when she went to meet her. Ah, there they were, she thought as she placed them on her hands. She walked up to the vivarium and looked at the creatures. They had a very good natural camouflage, and if she hadn't known they were in there, she probably would have never seen them.

She stuck her hand into one of the tanks and raised out one of the creatures. As she held it, she studied it closely. It was long and skinny, and looked like a twig with all of its legs held close to its body. She was pretty sure this one was the walking stick, so she placed it back into its tank and moved to the next one.

This one, well, this one was mean. His little legs squirmed, and she saw his tiny mouth try to bite her fingers. Good thing she had her gloves. Looking at it, it looked more like a piece of bark or something. And his feet had little fins. Yeah, this one was defiantly the dugbog.

Emmaleigh walked up to the professor, to share her thoughts. "P-professor, I believe this one here is the Dugbog. Hes p-pretty feisty; he tried to bite me with those sharp teeth of his. But more importantly, his feet have fins, which would come in hand s-swimming around the marshes." She pointed to the other tank."Comparing it to the c-creatures in that tank, you can really tell. When I p-picked one of them up it became ridged, and looked like a twig."

Well, obvious. Treyen was a very observant boy.

The smirk on his face disappeared as soon as he was...BLINDFOLDED?! What on Merlin's beard?! This woman was going to kill them! Coward! She should make them face her.

Oh. Hehe. Never mind.

Okay. The boy nodded and took another direction than the ones the others were taking...because he needed the gloves, you see. Hopefully Professor Saylen wouldn't notice? Nah, she'll notice, the gloves were right in front of her.

Then..off to a tank! There was something moving....and then at the touch of the boy's hands closed on itself. It was only a stick now. "Oh, Professor, this is the muggle stuff" he said, totally forgetting the name, "As soon as I picked it up it became rigid, a normal thing for them to do when they noticed intrusion, no?" he had to ask, because he wasn't sure.

And then some boy started to exclaim something, Treyen couldn't help but shake his head. He only needed to grab the Dugbog and take it away from his nose.

Walking Sticks?

She could find them in her backyard. Never had she thought about the similarities between the two creatures. She was thinking about the differences between the two when everything suddenly went dark.

She was crazy! Just like Lafay; where was Raiden when you needed him?! The woman wa-

Oh.

They could see.

Mini internal panic attack over. Heh.

Pulling her gloves out of her bag, she put them on while listening to the professor. That was an simple task.

She was about to head over and get her own creature, hopefully a Dudbog, when some boy started panicking. What on earth was he doing all of that for? Quickly making her way over to him, she bent down and let the creature crawl of his face and into her gloved hand. "Your gonna hurt them doing all that screaming and falling." She stated simply, still kneeling beside him as she studied the creature in her hand. It would be soo sad if one of the creature got hurt in class.

Plus the professor wouldn't be to happy if they were injured, that was for sure.

"This is a Dudbog," She said, brown eyes still on the creature as he tried to bite her hand through the glove. "He's really feisty, and it has the finned paws dudbogs have."

That and up close the creature didn't resemble the walking sticks she had seen.