wahooo Bay finally made it to their Sixth bush, he was so proud of Gryff… watching him bounce to the bush to start to much on some more berries.. this time he decided to stand.. he was starting to get his second wind which was great because he stepped sideways to see how many more bushes there were… and there seemed to be a bunch more.. he was about to talk to Gryff when..

"AHHHHCCCKKK…*cough*…..AHHHHCCCKKKK"

something was wrong.. Gryff was making these weird noises and he looked like he couldn't breathe… "OMG… HELP….. PUFFSKEIN DOWN!!!!!.. he….he can't breathe!!!!!" Bay was starting to panic now.. how was he supposed to save him!! he must have tried to eat more any one berry at a time. looking around he was pacing to see if anyone would come help..

Bart was still chuckling at the excitement You had for the berries. "Are they that good?" He poked at one of the berries thinking about eating one himself. Were they allowed? Looking around he was about to pick it off when he noticed You moving. "Hey where are you going?" The puffskein seemed to being wondering away, but it shouldn't with the spell right?


It must have warn off. Of course! He pulled out his wand and did the movement, "Animalis Fidelis" You seemed to get the spell and move closer again. Petting the creature on the head he got a good boy. "Alright time to head to the next bush." The second year started walking and looked to make sure his puffskein was walking.

Happy to see that You was following right next to him he started for the next bush. "See more berries isn't that great."

Adi happily made his way ahead of Homer towards another bush. When he paused at a randomly chosen one, he glanced around expecting to see his Puffskein friend bouncing at his feet. But it wasn't. Adi spun around, looking frantically for it. Oh! There it was! Still at the previous bush, chewing sloooowly. The spell obviously wore off.

The Puffer walked back to Homer. "Hey, bud. I think you need the spell's help again. Animalis Fidelis!'' He made the wand movement that went with the spell. "Let's go, Homer.'' Adi walked a few steps ahead and was pleased when Homer followed him, though he did so slower than usual. Hmmm. Must be to all the eating.

Adi thought Homer wasn't going to eat at the next bush but to his great surprise, he did! This Puffskein had a healthy appetite just like him. Hehe. Adi chewed on his berries while he waited for the two of them to move on.

"I think you'd wake up with your mouth full of fur, unsure of how much of your face your puffskein had explored with its tongue while you slept," Mo offered helpfully as he flipped his puffskein back over and redirected it toward the second bush. Once again, the trail of berries caught Spike's attention, and he rolled forward with Mo only paying half attention.

"You think Atole won't try to eat him, though? I'm lucky none of my pets are carnivorous beasts." Although Dart would probably carry Spike around in his mouth like his personal chew toy.

"Animalis Fidelis! Yummy bush, Spike. Keep going, bud." He watched as Spike latched onto the lowest branch and hung there. Okay, close enough.

Sander was waiting patiently with his Puffskein at the finishing line when he heard Bay call for help. He looked not only scared but frantic.

Was he in trouble? Of course he was or he wouldn't be calling for help. Alarmed, Sander made his way quickly to Bay, carrying Odin in one hand. He was wondering what had happened, but the moment he reached Bay's side, he immediately knew what was wrong.

The young Gryffindor's puffskein was lying on the ground choking!!

The poor animal most likely had something stuck in its throat. The only reason he knew what was wrong with the Puffskein was because he had seen the same thing happen to Storm, his Siberian Husky. She had been eating her dog biscuits when all of a sudden one of them got lodged in her throat instead of going down. He had seen his mother dislodge the object.

After Storm had been saved, Sander had asked her to teach him the spell. With that knowledge, Sander immediately knelt down next to the Puffskein, pulled out his wand, and pointed his wand at the Puffskein's throat....well at the place he thought a Puffskein's throat would be. Saying, "Anapneo," Sander cast the spell.

Had it worked? Was the Puffskein saved from an untimely departure to Puffskein Heaven? Sander hoped he had cast the spell correctly.

seeing Sander come his way he couldn't be any more relieved… "Sander!!!" but Bay didn't have to say anything.. he went to Gryff and said something really quick and then two berries shot out of his little mouth… seeing the little Puffskein's face come back to life he reacted like nothing happened… he started bouncing towards Bay..

he quickly moved to Sander and hugged him…making sure that he didn't squish Sanders Puffskein… "thank you… thank you… thank you" he couldn't be more happy…

"walk with us to the last bush" he wanted Sander to be around just in case Gryff decided that he wanted to eat more than one berry at a time.. walking towards the finish line Bay was so happy..

turning to wait a few seconds for Gryff to catch up he smiled at him "you did such a good job little buddy…and I'm sorry that you had your errr.. little accident but your okay now right….." he eyeballed him to make sure he was 100 percent better…

Now turning to Sander he gave his friend a high five… he couldn't had made it to the end with out him…. he started to get real sad all of a sudden so he gave him another long hug… "I'm going to miss you man" why wasn't Bay older… or Sander younger.. but they will go visit each other during the summer and stuff.. thats for sure..

Picking up Gryff he waited with Sander and the rest of the students that finished for everyone else.

Sander breathed a sigh of relief when the Puffskein coughed out two berries. The spell had worked!! He smiled when the Puffskein resumed bouncing like as if nothing had happened at all.

O_o....Man Hug!! "I really didn't do anything but you're more than welcome. I'm just glad the little guy is okay," Sander grinned at Bay and returned the hug before walking along with Bay and his Puffskein as they made their way towards the finishing line. Odin seemed more than happy to be cuddled in his arms, so Sander continued to carry him.

O_o ...yes High fives were good. Sander met Bay's high five with one of his own. He was glad that Bay had successfully completed the task but more so, the Puffskein had made it through alive.

"I'm going to miss you all too," Sander sadly told Bay....and he was telling the truth. He had grown fond of the school he had originally refused to attend. He would miss the place, the students and the staff.

Sigh!

The little creature seemed to be taking a long time eating.

Alec tilted his head as he watched it, half-surprised and half-awe struck. The creature was tiny! Where was all this food going?! It did know that there would be other bushes, right? Tearing his eyes away from her, the boy glanced up and around at the... oh. People had made it to the finish line already. ... No. He still wasn't taking this race seriously, which was weird for the slightly competitive eighteen year old.

Shaking his head, he looked down at Arietty who... wasn't there. BLINK. Well... she wasn't exactly lost. No, the creature had just decided to bounce away on her own. In a completely different direction. "Hey! Ari, we're meant to work together!" Unless she had forgotten. Or unless the spell hadn't worked proper--

... Oh! "Animalis Fidelis!" Now to test whether the spell had worked. "This way, Ari! There's a bush right up there that you can chomp on, yeah?" Obedient Puffskeins was obedient, a fact that made him smile as he led the way over towards the next bush. It wasn't far away either, luckily, but it was just as large as the other bush which... raised a few concerns.

The bright side? This Head Boy wore the pants in one relationship, at least.

Hm. That was true. Alice nodded in agreement, subconsciously reaching up to touch her nose. No puffskein tongues needed to enter there, that was for sure, or her ears. Luckily, Custard was now taking interests in berries and bushes just as his counterpart was, so her face was slobber free

"Atole eats everything." The day before, he'd eaten her runes homework. And no way Alice was rewriting all that, so it just wasn't getting turned in to Professor Botros. Nope.

Mo was recasting his spell, but Custard seemed to be doing just fine with his bush gobbling when he wasn't being horribly influenced by Spike. She just let him loll along, not bothering to cast again.

"We're never going to finish," Mo dropped his voice and hissed the words at Alice as he moved past her, carefully plucking his puffskein from his branch and setting him back on the ground. They needed to really motivate their puffskeins, or they'd be here all day.

"Atole didn't eat Titus. I think he could enjoy a Custard-less existence," Mo mused aloud. He moved ahead of Spike again, laying out a trail of berries to the third bush. Spike nosed along, clearly interested in the snack and willing to ignore his precious Mo!human in favor of food.

"Maybe we can just carry them after a certain point."

Adi decided that Homer had had enough to eat from this bush. He certainly was eating slow and honestly, Adi wanted to cross that finish line even though he hadn't won. He gathered up the berries he had just picked and placed them in his pocket. "Time to go, bud.'' Homer continued to chew. Right! The spell. "Animalis Fidelis!''

The second year walked ahead, turning occasionally to make sure that Homer was following. The Puffskein was taking its time but Adi didn't mind. At least it showed that the spell was working. At the white line, he waited for Homer to catch up. When it did, he said, ''Let's cross together, Homer.'' Homer seemed to understand for he bounced through the line at the same time as Adi.

"We did it! Good going, bud!'' But Homer seemed to be interested in something else. His tongue was flicking at Adi's pocket. Adi was puzzled. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the berries. He grinned. "You want a reward? Here you go then.'' He held out his hand so the Puffskein could gobble the berries down.

The theory that his Puffskein was going to take a long time to eat as much as she wanted of this bush proved to be false.

Alec was pleasantly surprised when he saw little Arietty taking a few chomps and then bouncing around to her heart's content. And speaking of little Arietty, maybe he was seeing things but... did she seem to be getting... bigger? ... No. No... right? But she was eating a lot. Unless she planned on doing the right exercise to make up for it. Or had a fast metabolism. Shrug. He didn't mind.

Moving on? Awesome idea.

"Okay, let's go to that bush over there, okay?" he said, pointing over at a smaller bush in the distance. The bouncing slowed down. Alec blinked at the creature as she turned her face -- or what he could assume was her face -- over towards him and gave him -- again, assuming -- a look. "What? We have to get to the finish line and... and that bush is right in line with it. See?" More pointing was happening but it didn't seem like the Puffskeins liked the idea of chomping on a smaller bush.

... Right. It probably wouldn't follow him there then, yeah? Not unless... "Animalis Fidelis!" There. The bouncing returned. Smiling, the Hufflepuff started walking towards the next bush, Arietty bouncing along at his heels. A little too close to his heels. Erm...?

Shrug. They were at the next bush so she could eat as much as she wanted while he waited.

"'Course we are. The finish is right there." So close, really. But she'd forgive Mo because it was more likely than not that he was just as blind as the rest of their school's elderly population.

Hm. He hadn't eaten Titus, but... "I think that's only 'cause he couldn't fit the rabbit into his mouth whole. If that puffskein gets anywhere near, he's catnip." Alice allowed the lil' furball to finish his berry leafy feast- LOL, she was so punny. Where was Nigel?- before giving Custard one last nudge. He began rolling, and with his human following close behind, made it to the end fairly quickly.

"Who needs to carry anything? I'm done." And she wouldn't have bent down to pick it up, that was for sure. Merlin knew her back agreed.

Deciding to give the Puffskein a bit of privacy, Alec stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked up and around. Staring at someone while they were eating was a little creepy, yeah? And it could put them off. Near hostile feelings would grow. That was the opposite of why this lesson was about so... he wasn't looking. Nope. And not complaining about how long Arietty was taking. Patience of a Hufflepuff.

... Was she done?

Stealing a glance at her, Alec waited another minute or so until... yeah, she was done. He was pretty much sure of it. Look at her bouncing away happily! Slowly but happily. ... He had questions about the speed. Not ones he could ask the creature for obvious reasons but maybe ones that Thompson could answer instead.

Later. Right now, he had a puffskein to catch up with.

"Hey! Hey, Arietty!" Hobble hobble hobble! ... Right until he reached her. "Are you that hungry?" No answer. Of course. Shaking his head, he continued walking, nearing closer and closer to the finish line. Good because... they really were behind. Slow. ... He could take the blame for that.

Meanwhile, she was a little far away, did she know? Frown. "Animalis Fidelis!" Bounce bounce bounce went the little creature... closer to his heels... bounce bounce bounce! There was some comfort to be found in that. Even if a spell was being used for this, Alec did like the fact that they were on friendly terms. The frown quickly turned into a smile as the two edged closer towards the slightly larger bush.

"All yours, M'lady," ... Lady? Lady.

Now that they were at the third bush Bart was seeing people getting closer to the end. "You we have to hurry it up." but it seemed his puffskein was getting slower and slower. He started walking towards the next bush, but his puffskein seemed to not want to follow.

Pulling out his wand he figured he was going to have to do the spell yet again. Were everyone having this much trouble keeping the spell on the creature. He sighed and did the wand movement "Animalis Fidelis" The puffskein stopped munching and started waddling towards him. "That's better."


He smiled and pet the creature a few times before heading to the next bush. Having the puffskein close to him so not to wander away Bart pointed towards the next bush. "See more berries." Now hurry up slow poke.

They were nearly at the finish line, did the puffskein know?

Maybe it did. Maybe that was why it was taking so long eating the berries from the bush. Alec wouldn't be surprised. His owl did something similar when it came to visit him and he needed to shoo it away while he went to sleep. But while his owl wasn't the friendliest of birds at times, the puffskein was... a little better. That is, until it started bouncing away...

... which it was doing now.

"Hey!" The Puffskein stopped and turned around... or he was going to assume it did. "Just... just wait." Holding up his index finger, the boy headed off towards the nearest bush and started tearing off some berries of his own. Not for him, no. For that little ball of fluff that was bouncing around in circles close to the last bush it was near.

Finishing, Alec started walking slowly towards the finishing line, letting berries drop in a straight line all the way until the finish line. It was the only way to make sure that the puffskein was still following him, yeah? Maybe. Arietty followed along, her long, thing tongue poking out every now and then to gobble the berries up. Gobble gobble bounce bounce.

"We did it! Atta girl!" GRIN. "Here, have the rest of the berries," he said, bending down and holding out his hand where a small amount of leftover berries were sitting there. This meant that they could relax, then, yeah? Good.

"Animalis Fidelis!" He aimed and fired at the snot-green puffskein he'd just been working with, in case in the time of the set up of the race the spell had worn off.

A minute later...

Ermagerhd!!!!! Desireee was eating soo slowly! Cutty was losing his patience, what little he had for things living or not that he regarded as less than he. If there weren't people around to witness, he might've been tempted to do wrongful things to move her along faster. He sighed and looked skyward.
Desiree's tongue whipped about the berry bushes as she sought out and found more of the plant's fruit. Her little mouth emitted munching sounds which were scarcely audible above the sound of her happy humming. She did not give a care about the race. These berries were delicious and she was enjoying them quite a bit. That, however, was about when the spell wore off because Dez started back toward the starting line. "Animalis Fidelis!" He casted on her quickly luring her on to the next bush.

They were getting close.. They were getting close to the end. Come on You they could do this, but the puffskein didn't seem to want to leave the berries and Bart was tired so standing there waiting for the puffskein to eat some more was fine with him. He pulled Toad out of his robe pocket. "Maybe there are some flies to eat." He moved the frog towards the bush.

Losing all focus from the race he set down the frog and watched him hop towards the over grown bushes. Something catching the frog's attention he quickly headed away from the second year, "Hey.. wait.. Toad.. Run away frog!!!" He shuffled quickly and dove on top of the frog. "Umph" Diving to the ground after a frog was not something an old man should do. He felt the impact on his entire body.

Slowly getting to his feet he looked over and saw You was starting to wander back to a previous bush. "No.. no.. Animalis Fidelis " he did the wand movement. You came wandering over to him and they slowly shuffled to the next bush.

How could she possibly be hungry enough to eat still more berries? He'd just fed her a big old glop of snot. Yet, Desiree was at it again, whipping her tongue about, detecting the berries and munching on them at a leisurely pace. And, ugh! Her humming. It had a droning sort of sound to it, Cutty thought. Forget about Fwoopers, listening to a puffskein's humming could drive one mad enough.

The humming stopped for a brief second and Desiree turned away from the now berryless bush as if to say 'All done!'. The spell was wearing off again, but instead of turning away she was coming right for Cutty's shoes because he was quickly being associated with food. When she got close enough he fired his wand at what he thought was her soft, green head, "Animalis Fidelis!"

Wiggin was getting better at the listening part. Bev had a feeling a sort of bond was forming between them. That was evident in the puffskein's constant humming every time he bounced between her legs. The only times he didn't obey was when he came upon a bush with berries. Beverly understood something; the puffskein liked her, she liked him, he was just a stubborn little piece of dung. It would have been endearing, had they not been in the center of a race. As it was, she currently stood next to a bush while Wiggin munched on more berries.

"Wiggin, that's enough for now. I promise you can have all the berries you want after we're done." The puffskein hummed as if saying, 'Whatever lovely loser, I want these.' UGH. She was losing it. "Okay, Wiggin, I like food too, adore it actually, but it's time to move on." Beverly went over to the bush and plucked out the berries Wiggin hadn't gotten to yet, then stuffed them into her pocket.

"Look, Wiggin!" Beverly pointed dramatically at a bush father away. Wiggin followed. "That bush has loads of berries!" She wasn't sure if he understood at first, but he probably got the gist of it because Wiggin rolled and bounced toward said bush. YES. Moving along.

He was tired and saw that there was no way he was going to win the race, so why not let You eat as many berries as he wanted. Bart stood just watched everyone and the puffskein eat. He was kind of getting attached to the creature and enjoying this activity. Then he thought about what they were doing. Maybe he shouldn't be letting the puffskein eat so much, it was going to end up fat on berries.

"You, let's go." He watched the puffskein hesitate and then come near him. "We should move a little faster to give you more exercise." Patting the puffskein on the head Bart forced himself to go into a light jog limping on his bad knee, but the puffskein was trotting along next to him so that was good he was giving it exercise.

Seeing the puffskein moving a little faster the second year was struggling to keep up until he realized You had seen the berries on the last bush and was headed towards them. Stopping as he got to the bush he laughed at his puffskein started eating again. "I should have named you pig."

Mo scoffed at Alice, who was doing that thing where she purposefully misunderstood him. Maybe it was to make him feel stupid, maybe it was teasing. Maybe it was just Alice, and there was no point in searching for deeper meanings. "We're well behind everyone else. That's the point."

Mo threw berries toward the end of the course, shuffling close behind Spike and herding with his feet so the puffskein couldn't wander or dawdle or lick rocks. It seemed to work, and Spike rolled after Custard to his finish. "I think you could train Atole not to eat your puffskein. I mean... they're pretty cute, aren't they?"

Not terrifying or deadly at all, but there was something endearing about that rock-licking ball of fuzz. "Spike. Give Alice a kiss." Hehe.

Her little trick had worked. The only problem was keeping up with the the overly excited puff ball. By the time Beverly caught up with Wiggin she had to catch her breath while he munched on more berries.

"That was cool," she gasped. Come on lungs! There's oxygen all around. Take some in. "But I think you need a bit more of charm," she mumbled to herself. Wiggin was too damn stubborn. Why couldn't he more obedient like professor Thompson? Was it that hard?

"Animalis Fidelis!"

Wiggin blinked widely mid-biting a berry, then turned his attention back at Beverly. "Thought you needed that, you little rascal." She bent down to pat his head, and surprisingly enough, Wiggin nuzzled against her hand. MOST ADORING CREATURE EVER. Hopefully that would do the trick for the rest of the race. She could see the finish line.

"Come on, Sir Wiggin. No time to lose."

Sabder waited at the finishing line with the other students and their Puffskeins. Odin was sleeping soundly in his arms. The poor guy had eaten his fill and was tired out from all that exercise.

Sander could see just a few students who were hurrying their Puffskeins along so he called out in encouragement.

"Come on Puffskeinds. Your buddies are over here waiting for you. It's time to come on in,"

...and we're bouncing...bouncing...bouncing...

Piers stood at the end of the race, waiting with the shimmering finish line for the students to cross the line. Both the students and the puffskein fluff balls seemed to be doing an excellent job at the race and he was glad to see that most of them were enjoying it, even if he could practically hear some of their bones creaking.

Keeping a close eye on the finish line, Piers watched as the first few students crossed over successfully with their puffskeins. As the final students were bringing their puffskeins through the race, Piers clapped his hands a few times and shouted for the whole class to hear, "Excellent job, guys! Keep up the great work! The first six of you that crossed the finish line... Strand, Bishop, Newell, Carrington, Cambridge and Bay, congrats! Keep your eyes on the house points for an extra surprise." Badabing badaboom.

"For the rest of you, great job! Class is dismissed once you get your fur ball across the finish line! Please direct your puffskein back into the fenced area. Thanks for participating in the final for Charms and Care of Magical Creatures!" Piers did some more clapping and waited for the rest of the puffskeins and the students to cross, pleased that the final lesson of the year went quite smoothly.

OOC: Thanks so much for participating, guys! You're awesome! If you haven't finished yet, keep going! This thread will close tomorrow afternoon, EST.