Raiden stared at the back of Fletcher's head, setting him with a serious look when the younger man turned to look at him. He would 'entertain' the idea, huh.

"Shallow moves get the offender hexed and shoved in a hedge," he muttered darkly. As far as he was concerned, what Noel had done wasn't 'shallow' so much as... well just a bit childish and without thought. As had the entire fight that had happened in the clearing. "We're all adults here. It's a... an odd situation, but there's no reason to not be mature and work together without qualms."

Just because it was a competition didn't mean that they had to be underhanded and turn on each other, after all.

"So we're agreed. No more fighting over chickens or other fowl or what have you, and no snatching wands. And no attacking each other like idiots."

...unless, at the end, it came to having to take each other out. Then... then they'd end up fighting it out. But only then. ONLY THEN. It would be a lot easier to face what they were moving towards if they were all working together. After all, who wanted history to repeat itself? He certainly didn't.

Darkness descends in one swift stroke, as if night has decided to come both early and suddenly. The path is now pitch black, the ground uneven, rocky territory that makes you stumble.

It is a titan's task to make out anything, even your companions and as you continue to walk, you get the feeling that you are going downhill. The ground descends even further as the path curves sharply to the left. There is an odd feeling in the pit of your stomach, and you get the strange, inexplicable sensation that you are walking around in a circle.

In the distance, you can hear a strange, inhuman cry that makes your hair stand on end.

"He's the only one who's an idi---" Fletcher started to reply to Raiden, before he heard it.

It could have stopped him dead in his tracks had he not been the one leading. That cry. That inhuman, inhumane, creepy horrid sound. Fletcher swallowed nervously and tried to take a few calming breaths. The sudden, complete darkness and feeling of sloping ground were not helping. Not at all.

He didn't have any more words of encouragement for his fellow champions. They all knew what was coming.... why waste words?

Noel could only agree with the Hogwarts champion. Especially on the part about shallow moves get the offender hexed and shoved in a hedge. He’d have no trouble carrying out that deed if needed; particularly if Flipper was the one needing to be hexed.

Attack eachother? He was going to do no such thing! Attacking and teaching someone were two completely different things. Nodding silently in the dark however, he moved his attention over to the path they were walking. His foot slipped the slightest, but only for a moment. New ground? Ugh, he could not see a thing.

Flicking his wand and letting the little light appear at the tip, the sudden downhill movement had him wondering for a moment. They…they weren’t walking into a cave were they? He was rather tired of caves and would not like to be in one again.

O___O That didn't sound good. His footsteps became hesitant just a bit. He wasn't stopping though, just keeping his footing and such so he didn't slip and tumble down. Maybe, maybe he should extinguish the light from his wand...

He disregarded what Fletcher had been beginning to say, knowing full well where it was going, and decided to take Noel's silence as an agreement. They obviously had other things to focus on now... other things being that horrible sound. Breath caught in his chest even as his wand flicked and produced a soft light, and the fingers of the same hand dug into his pocket, tips catching the shrunken mirror.

That didn't sound like a crup.

The darkness refuses to lift as you trudge ahead. The path has become a zig-zag, its turns sharp, the ground full of rocks that tend to stick to your shoes until shaken off.

The faint cry becomes louder with every step that you take. It is almost as if you are approaching something... something that, under normal circumstances, it would be wise to run away from.

But there is no going back now.

Fletcher didn't want to lead now. Did not want. He did not want to be the first one to die. HE WAS TOO YOUNG TO DIE!!!! and... and TOO HANDSOME TO DIE!!!!!!!!

Think, Fletcher, calm yourself. The boy continued to breathe as steadily as he could as he walked left and then zipped right and then left again. Uh oh. Zig-zagging. This really was a confusing maze. How would they get out of here... if they even made it out alive?! There was no denying that the cry ahead of them was getting louder the more they trudged onward... and it was not a welcoming sound in the slightest.

Fletcher let out a shuddery sigh and slowed the pace a little, his grip tightening on both his wand and the rooster. He was prepared to release the bird from its petrificus totalus state the instant he saw anything ahead...

The zig zagging path would have been great to travel if those cries didn’t keep causing his heart to stop every now and then. Just, he needed to breathe. They were getting closer and closer though, and the cries were becoming louder and louder.

Getting sick was no use, though he was certainly feeling clammy at the moment.

Gripping his wand tighter, he distinguished his light, the other champions’ lights being enough at the moment. At least to see where they were stepping.

It felt as if he were walking to his doom. Or to the molten pits of the earth, and once they arrive, they’ll be subjected to a century or torments, sounding just like whoever or whatever was making those cries. His hand grasped a few more of the runes in his pocket, picking them up, and letting them go before starting all over again, counting them in his mind. Anything to get the sound of those cries out.

The disc had been shrunk enough that it fit easily into his palm and Raiden held it carefully, ever conscious of the slight nervous tremors spreading through the tips of his fingers. He almost wished they could go back to the other clearing, with the crup. Or that they'd brought the yapping creature with them, because it would be a comfort, at least.

"If... if that's... it... what's our plan," he finally managed, voice quiet. All traces of his own worry and fear had been washed from it; Fletcher might have recognised the carefully blankness of the tone.

Left. Right. Left. The strange, slow wail continues to grow louder by degrees. Eventually, dim - very dim - light peeks into the maze, and you realize you have come to a wide bend in the tunnel.

On the ground, there is a faint, moving shadow. The shadow of something huge and ominous.

Something huge and ominous that awaits you round the bend.

Non! Noel didn't want it to be it.

"Well.." he whispered, taking careful steps. "You have ze weazel, Flipper here haz ze roozter..." Which should have been HIS, and he was defenseless! Or, no he had the mirror. He could enlarge it of course, and perhaps create duplicates but, he'd so rather not have to go up against this thing. "Does everyone have ze mirror zing?"

Oui, that would be nice if they did.

Seeing the little lights finally playing into the area, his gaze landed on the large shadow, causing him to stop in place. That...

That was...big.

Okay, WHOA.

Very dim lights showed Fletcher the way ahead and he wasn't sure he liked what he saw there... just from the shadow being cast. The boy stopped dead before he took a single step further beyond the bend. He was NOT DYING TODAY. Not. He would talk strategy with the other two, yes yes he would.

"Noel... Raiden..." Fletcher spoke, careful to keep his voice tremor-free. "They... I... uh... if you look at it... it... that kills you, right? I have a mirror, yeah, but I don't want to... get that close to it."

He wasn't sure if the legends regarding breathing and the beast still having powers even after death were true as well, see. "So... should I release the rooster now? Or do you think it would work if the weasel chased the rooster into there....?"

As in... in there ahead of them, so they could safely follow.

Oh. Merlin. No.

Raiden reached forward, past Noel, and grabbed Fletcher's shoulder, not even daring to breathe as he gave a short tug to stop him. Which wasn't needed, because Fletcher had stopped himself.

"It... petrifies you. By looking at you or touching you or... breathing on you." Raiden's face had dropped a shade. "Should... we should..." He looked at the weasel. "We should conjure a few more of these, I think. And when we go round the corner... set them loose on the thing."

The weasel could likely attack the rooster if they were let go at the same time.

"I have mine..." he held the circular thing forward, palm flat. "We could duplicate them... it's supposed to petrify itself if... like Medusa..."

He was getting a bit flustered. Worry was rising in his chest like icy water; what if one of them got caught by it? What if it got out? What if... what if.

Well, that was a way to get him all confident and fired up! Not.

Glancing towards Flipper, Noel hid his scowl before looking back towards the shadow. Yea, they could die from its stare. He’d rather have not remembered that detail, but it was life-saving that he does. "Aw petrified. At least zat iz better, oui?" Again, trying to lighten the mood, but who knows what the thing did after it petrified you. You were probably as good as dead.

Taking quick, deep breathes, the French man leaned against the wall, trying to see if he could spot the beast thing by leaning over. No, he just got the shadow. "If you released ze bird…do you zink it would start…it…give us away? Make a lot of noise?"

The shadow, it was ruining his speech. Clearing his throat quietly, he did like the idea Raiden had of duplicating things. "Probably, stick zem on ourselves too. Like armor. Sorta..."

Well he wanted to be sure that if that bird monster thing looked at him, it would see it's reflection!

Startled by Raiden's grasp on his shoulder, Fletcher could have jumped a mile and nearly dropped his rooster. If he thought he was terrified of what was coming next.... then Raiden's tone and half-jumbled thinking out loud only doubled his fears.

"Okay... let's think this through. I read that weasels are immune to their powers? But you said... you think," because there was no sure way of knowing was there, "er..... what are you hoping the weasels will do? Distract it?"

His wand hand went to his forehead and he pushed his hair back with a frustrated motion, letting it fall back into its usual spot. "What about the rooster, then? Maybe we should just duplicate it and let them... crow and stuff..." He was implying that the roosters' crow would successfully kill the monster.

Fletcher shook his head at Raiden's last idea. "I don't know if that will work, mate... I'm sure it would petrify itself but how are we going to get it to look in the mirrors?"

Unless... unless... now he was having an idea.... Fletcher put his wand between his teeth and carefully pulled the mirror out of his pocket. He turned it around and over in his hands, visualizing what he wanted to do with it. "Like armor," he echoed Noel's last statement. "Exactly."

The darkness lifts, as you pass the bend and, for a moment, this seems like a good thing.

Then you see the creature in front of you.

It is gigantic. Its body like that of a rooster, its teeth sharp and pointed, its eyes large and mean, the cockatrice towers above you, casting a massive shadow across the ground. There is a sharp swoosh as it spreads its huge wings and then, with a resounding crash, smacks its gigantic tail against the ground. As it does so, you notice a small opening in the hedegrow behind it.

You can't run and you can't hide. If there is an exit, the cockatrice is guarding it with its life.

Your only option is to defeat the creature.

Merlin. Calm down, Kururugi.

Panicking will not do you any favours.

Taking a few deep breaths, holding them in his lungs for a moment each time before letting them go, he pushed himself back to center. It was okay, it would be fine. He had walked through a Devil's Snare and stood in front of a sphinx. This was just... another small bump.

Calm. Calm.

"I can cast oppugno on them, and make them attack it. Should distract it enough that we can... get the rooster to crow, or figure our stuff out."

Sticking the mirrors on themselves? That was one sure-fire way to get it to see itself... Casting a glance in the direction of the shadow, he swallowed hard, his throat dry.

"Why is it so big," he murmured, more to himself than either of them. Sure, the books hadn't told him how big it would be, but when it had said 'like a rooster' he had assumed it would be... well, rooster-sized. "Don't forget that it can fly, too."

OH MERLIN IN HEAVEN WHAT.

"Fletcher!" Raiden let go of the other man and immediately cast at the weasel in his hand. It unfroze, and he sent a silent 'oppugno' at it, letting it fly at the cockatrice. A quick spell conjured a few more, and he took a few steps back, enlarging the mirror in his hand to twice the size it had been before. Armour or just plain shield, it would hopefully work.

It wasn't until that moment that he remembered something really, really important.

...roosters didn't crow in the dark.

Exactly. Alright. Armor it was then.

Fiddling with his shirt, slowly pressing out any wrinkles that may have been in it, his gaze moved away from the shadow and two the other two champions. His heart was beginning to feel as it was not in his body anymore and instead it was just outside of it. He could feel the rapid beats, although, it just felt as if it weren’t there.

He needed his heart though. Needed it back to normal that is so he could think straight.

Listening to the Yellow Hogwarts Champion speak, Noel nodded somewhat every now and then, as if agreeing to what he was saying, whether it was a strategy or a fact. However, there was a bit of dread running through him as he tried to think of ways around getting close to the beast thing. "Ze weazels…"

…The weasels will have to be duplicated FAST!! And so would the mirrors. Monster alert. MONSTER ALERT!

Staring at the rather large and enormous creature, Noel suddenly took a step back and looked down to the mirror in his hand. Enlarging it quickly to its original size, he tapped it with his wand, letting the object duplicate itself before he placed it sticking charm on it..and slapped it to his chest, all the while watching Raiden do the thing with the weasel. One more time he did this, though enlarged it some more, and put it on his back before enlarging the original mirror. Don't look at it. Must not look at it.

Did that creature hear them!? Had they been too loud!?

Merlin it was BIG! "Don't let it breathe on you!" Shield charms! NEED THEM!

Thinking quickly, Fletcher cast an enlarging charm on the mirror in his hand before he went any further. It grew and grew until it was like a round, proper-sized war shield. Fletcher was about to transfigure it further to make it a fully functional reflective shield with a handle when he realized... they were beyond the bend now.

"AHHHH!"

He stifled his own scream as he dropped the rooster, absolutely horrified at the sight of the beast before them. Fletcher quickly averted his eyes and finished transfiguring his mirror!shield so that he could have temporary safety behind it. Luckily, he had dropped the rooster behind the shield as well.

"Finite!" Fletch whispered, poking the rooster and freeing it of its spell. "Go. Run."

Please Merlin, please let the weasels chase the bird until it is agitated enough to crow.... and confused enough to think it's daylight...

The weasel squeals as it's unfrozen and flies only a few feet forward before it hits the ground. The creature turns around and runs back to Raiden Kururugi, and latches itself to the champion's left ankle.

The rooster lazily begins to peck at the ground for worms and pecks Duncan Fletcher's right shoe several time. In its beak is the champion's shoelace and the rooster begins to tug on it.

Casting a temporary sticking charm, Raiden stuck the mirror against the outside of his sleeved forearm. Emergency procedures, and all that. A shield charm went up next, and Raiden watched with an almost horrified expression as Fletcher released the rooster.

"Too dark, too dark, too dark," he muttered frantically to himself, eyes on the little creature rather than the large huge one that was going to be the end of them all. And the weasel obviously wasn't getting his PURPOSE. "Damn it!"

Raiden gave a tremendous kick, sending the thing flying off his ankle BAD WEASEL. Holding his left arm up, keeping it between himself and the creature, he took a quick step forward.

"Lumos Solem!"

Sunlight burst from the tip of his wand, a temporary blinding light. NOW CROW. CROW AND HE WOULD CONJURE WORMS FOR YOU FOREVER.

....talk about epic fail. Were they champions or weren't they?! Stupid uncooperating animals....

"No no, you... urgh... silly rooster. Shoo! Shoo!" Fletcher shook his head and looked down at the bird undoing his shoelace. "That is not a worm."

Wait, a worm. Yessss. He could get the bird to do his bidding with worms! ahaha! Glancing back at the other champions -- and Raiden in particular, with a weasel wrapped around his ankle -- Fletcher started moving inward, daring to take a few steps closer (BUT NOT TOO CLOSE) to the cockatrice.

He dropped to his knees again after a few steps and quickly pulled the shield over his head and face, so that his side that was closest to the cockatrice was covered. Now then, to deal with the rooster.

"Heeere, birdy birdy bird, heeere buddy," he turned and softly beckoned the rooster closer. Fletcher flicked his wand and conjured up a few thick, plump worms. Dangling them out, Fletcher dropped one by his shoe, then one out beyond his shield, and a third one he actually tossed toward the cockatrice.

"Come and get 'em!" Or don't! Either way, the bird should be excited enough by the combination of Raiden's light and Fletcher's food to let out a big, loud CA-CA-CA-CAWWWWWWW!

Casting an unbreakable charm on each of his mirrors, Noel glanced to the rooster, hoping that it’d start doing its thing. Please, start making some noise.

Nooo! It was supposed to make the noise thing.

Noel…well he didn’t know what to do! He was just trying not to get noticed, all the while trying to think of plans if the rooster really was some sort of mute. Perhaps, they could tie up the bird and force it to look at its reflection? Or just tie it up in general…

With the blinding light coming from Raiden’s wand, Noel turned away so he himself wasn’t blinded. Temporarily that is.

Temporary…EEP! Just to be sure, the French man quickly cast a temporary shield around himself, though he was getting frustrated at the rooster. "C'mon... Crow!" Before his eyes burned.

Raiden Kururugi and Noel Laurent look somewhat comical - each has a small mirror stuck to their robes with a sticking charm while Duncan Fletcher resembles a Greek warrior with his mirror shield.

Suddenly the weasel finds itself airborne and it smacks into the hedgerow. The rustling of the hedge causes the cockatrice to move forward and its shadow looms larger than ever before.

A blinding light coming from Kururugi's wand illuminates the cave-like area.

Behind Fletcher's large shield is the rooster and he eats the first worm that's located next to the champion's shoe. When finished, he begins pecking at the ground once more.





OOC: It is imperative that you clearly state the spell(s) that you are using. Assuming that we know what you're doing doesn't cut it.

Really, rooster, really? You still want to be a mute? Fletcher was losing his patience now and was highly tempted to just kick the brainless beast all the way to the cockatrice's face.

Speaking of which.... Fletcher peeked around the edge of his shield, not daring to look up. He maintained eye contact with the ground and his eyes widened as the shadow seemed to be looming closer... and closer still.

What to do what to do?!! Why hadn't the rooster crowed yet? It should have been startled by the blinding light from Raiden. And if not that, then it most definitely should have been stimulated by the sight of the worms.

"Geminio," he whispered again, reaching out and duplicating the rooster. "Geminio." And now there was a third one, and... "Geminio." A fourth. "Geminio!" A fifth.

THAT should be enough roosters. Five birds and only two worms left, both of which were closer to the cockatrice than to Fletcher. But just to be sure, to be certain he could elicit a response from the dumb bird, the Hufflepuff picked up his shield and quickly scurried a ways away. No closer to the cockatrice, just to a different location than the one the birds were currently occupying.

He put his shield down and crouched, quickly tying the shoelace that the bird had stated to undo and that had just unraveled itself. That completed, Fletcher looked about to see what the roosters were doing and decided not to wait for them to crow.

Taking a courageous breath, the Hufflepuff let out what he hoped was an accurate version of a rooster's crow.... or at least accurate enough to trick the roosters into thinking they were now engaged in a territorial dispute and that they should start crowing as well. Heck, maybe Raiden and even Noel would pick up the call.

"COCK-A-DOODLE DOOOOOOOO!"