Running from your worst nightmare!

First Task (40 points) (200 words min)


Oh Merlin, it’s right behind me. Skie could feel the quintaped’s hot breath on her neck as she felt her legs begin to throb. Skie could imagine the hairy red body, it’s club feet, and it’s terrible face. Uglier than anything Skie had ever seen, it’s pug- like jaws would be dripping with saliva as it devoured her, blood dripping from it’s sharp teeth, it’s terrible, cruel black eyes elated with the hunt and the taste of it’s favorite meal, human flesh.

All I wanted was a nice, quiet night in the forest, Skie thought mournfully. And quintapeds aren’t even supposed to live in this part of Scotland! This one was an oddity, hunting outside of their normal grounds, maybe a convicted man eater, because once a quintaped had experienced human flesh, it became a like drug. The quintaped had been tracking Skie all night, ever since she snuck out of her hotel in northern Scotland where her parents had sent her and her brother for summer vacation. The stars were shining and beautiful above the dark canopy of leaves, but Skie wasn’t really thinking about the beauty of the night, she was concentrating on saving her life. Skie smelled the wet dirt beneath her feet, hard packed and ill suited for running because of the recent rain.

Don’t slip, said a voice in the back of her head, chuckling darkly, pessimistic till the end. Oh, shut up, Skie thought. This is hardly the time for your comments, Skie reflected as she surveyed her surroundings. There was no moon, it was hidden by dark storm clouds, so Skie had to stumble almost blindly as she ran from the monster behind her. Skie’s neck was cold with sweat, her body aching for the pain to stop, but if Skie stopped, she’d surely die.

I’m not going to die here, Skie thought grimly. Or at least if I do, I won’t go down without a fight. But Skie knew, even in her own mind, that if it turned to a fight, she wouldn’t live. So she turned to the only method of escape that she would be able to employ, running and hiding. Taking a sharp right in the forest to throw the creature off, Skie found herself at a dead end on the edge of a cliff. The quintaped hadn’t been chasing her at all; it had been herding her to take her to the place where she would have no chance at running at all. Chasing her to certain death.

Second Task (40 points) (250 words min)


Skie’s hard breathing was the only sound for a long moment as the quintaped closed in on her; it’s feet making dull thuds on the mushy ground. The rain was beginning to fall, making it hard to see. Skie could feel sobs beneath her exterior beginning to bubble up and escape from her lips, her eyes starting to swell with tears. Angrily, Skie swept the tears from her watering eyes and pulled her wand from the back pocket of her jeans.

Not gonna die, Skie thought, her mind racing for a useful defensive spell. “I’m not gonna die… At least not without a fight” Skie murmured in a low voice. Wracking her brains, Skie remembered that she had been storing her potions kit in her bag and pulled it out, the quintaped watching her warily. Skie knew that it wouldn’t be long before it attacked, it’s claw raking through her skin, it’s teeth tearing apart her muscles like a rag doll.

Out of the corner of her eye, as she was digging through her potions kit, Skie saw the creature tense for attack. “NO!” The sound burst from Skie’s throat as the beast lunged, it’s teeth flashing like strobe-lights in darkness. Scrambling for a curse, any curse, Skie uttered the first thing that came to mind as the quintaped was only a split second away from mauling her to death.

“Conjunctivitus!” Skie screamed, pointing her wand as the creature. Skie felt the curse shoot out of her wand as she fell backwards onto the ground, hard rocks breaking her fall and scratching her elbows. Skie looked up to see the quintaped roaring in pain, its clawed feet clutching at it’s eyes. Grabbing her bag from where she had dropped it, Skie rummaged through it to see the potions that she had on hand.

“C’mon, c’mon… there has to be something here!” Skie exclaimed above the moans of the creature. “YES!” Skie had found her Confusing Concoction, and there was just enough for her to throw at the quintaped to give her enough time to run. While the quintaped was still struggling to see through the stabbing pain in it’s eyes, Skie tossed the potion into it’s open mouth and hoped that it would work. The quintaped abruptly started to twitch as soon as the potion entered it’s system, it’s muscles convulsing as if it were having a seizure, but when it’s eyes opened, Skie realized that her potion was for human use not creature, and it had canceled the effects of her Conjunctivitus Curse.

“Oh goodness.” Skie whispered as the quintaped turned for another attack. “Everte Stratum,” Skie’s voice had a mind of it’s own as it shot the curse at the quintaped, the spell making the creature shoot back about 100 feet, giving Skie time to look through her potions bag again. “Right, Pepperup Potion!” Skie quickly drained the bottle, and was rewarded by a shot of energy coursing through her veins. “Okay, I can do this.” The quintaped was coming in for another attack.

“Dontcha know when to give up, ya nasty little beastie?” Skie yelled at the quintaped. The Pepperup Potion had left her with renewed energy, her body was ready to run as soon as the monster was down for even a second, but Skie knew that when the potion wore off, she would be just as drained as ever. This had to end fast. Spinning around on her heel, Skie pointed to one of the trees behind the quintaped and yelled, “Wingardium Leviosa!” Lifting the tree up from it’s roots, Skie pointed it over the quintaped and shouted, “Duro!” The tree turned to stone, and as Skie let go, it came crashing down on the quintaped.

Skie looked closely at the scene, there was no blood, but no quintaped either. Edging in closer, Skie lifted one of the trees branches. As she searched for anything that showed her that the quintaped was gone, Skie felt something sharp in the back of her leg. The quintaped’s eyes, intelligent and cold, said one thing ‘Gotcha’. Before Skie really processed what was happening, the quintaped had knocked her to the ground and was starting to circle her, waiting to go in for the final blow.

Oh my God, Skie was dumbstruck. The back of her leg was bleeding hard, the quintaped’s claws had done their job. If the quintaped doesn’t kill me, then if I don’t repair my leg, that’ll kill me Skie moaned. Deciding to do what she could while she was conscious, Skie pointed her wand to her leg and muttered the flesh repairing charm. Feeling a sharp sting as her tissues repaired themselves, Skie realized with dismay that her Pepperup Potion had worn off. She was a sitting duck for the quintaped.

And I didn’t even get to say goodbye, Skie didn’t know who her goodbye would be to, perhaps to all the friends that she was leaving, perhaps to her brother, or her teachers, or perhaps, even to herself. But something came over Skie in that moment, distaste. A funny emotion to feel in this situation, but that was what she felt. Distaste for the fact that she was resigning herself to being eaten, disgust for the fact that she had given up.

“No.” Skie didn’t even realize that she had spoken the word until she realized that she was the only human for miles. “No, I’m not gonna die here.” Skie voice was calm as she struggled to move into a sitting position, her sore muscles screaming that they’d rather die than move. The beast moved in for the final blow, creeping in those last couple inches, it’s teeth bared.

“Expulso,” Skie muttered weakly as the quintaped began to push itself off the ground, pointing her wand at a boulder behind the creature. When her wand merely shook, Skie tried again. “Expulso!” Flames shot out of her wand like a bullet, and the boulder exploded in a flash of light. Covering the back of her neck to protect herself from the flying fragments of rock, Skie saw that the quintaped was stalled, it’s eyes on the explosion.

“Confringo,” Skie spoke firmly, pointed at the dirt behind quintaped’s back, when the dirt exploded, the quintaped was blasted forward, and lay crumpled on the ground. Oh my goodness, I think I killed it… Skie’s heart went out to the poor creature, but all of her sympathy immediately was withdrawn when the creature stirred slightly. Pointing her wand at the creature with as much energy as she could muster, Skie whispered, “Petrifis Totalus,” at the now frozen creature.

As Skie walked through the forest slowly, as she had wanted to do in the first place, everything seemed full of shadows, a monster in ever patch of darkness. “Lumos,” Skie muttered, her voice cracking slightly. But her spell had the effect that she desired, the darkness was chased away, at least for a moment. But what in the world am I going to tell the Ministry of Magic? Skie wondered as her mind moved on to more pressing matters.

Task One

It was dark in the forest and rain made the ground slippery as Gemma ran through the maze of trees, heart pumping and breath coming in short, hurtful gasps. She tried hard not to look back and instead concentrate on where she was going, or at least on not hitting or tripping over anything. She had long ago lost track of where she was, all she knew was that she had to get away. Still she hadn't quite comprehended how the nice day she spent in nature had turned into her nightmare coming alive. The colours brushing past her made her lose all orientation, she concentrated on her pace rather than her direction and wished she could shut out the sound of another set of footsteps following closely behind her.

Tears streaked down her face. She wanted to tell herself that the fear, the panicking, the desperation all were an overreaction and that what was behind her didn't pose a real danger, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it. Image after image crept up in front of her eyes, all the ways her happiness was to be destroyed if she didn't defeat that beast. Before she had known of it, she wouldn't have thought herself capable of such intense hate and fear. It was dumb to run from a person, a girl the same age as herself, somebody who wasn't actually dangerous at all. But this was different.

She knew Alisha was a danger to her, to her love and thus her life. She tried to ignore the images of Alisha and her very own boyfriend, arm in arm, unbelievably happy. This was no good, she needed to concentrate on where she stepped and what pathes she took. She had to run from the pain, the destruction, she couldn't take it to look into that faca and see the threat lingering there. She had come to fight, and Gemma had chose to run away. It was cowardly, but she couldn't look at her, no matter how much she would have loved to fight her to death. She was fleeing instead, hoping to stand a chance and hoping the other would go away or maybe she would wake up and it'd all have been a dream.

But it couldn't be a dream, not with the way she felt the adrenaline shooting through her body, her heart accelerating ever more and rushing the blood through her veins, the breath getting caught in her throat time after time and the warm, salty liquid moistening her cheeks and lips. This was no dream, this was reality. She had a choice to make, and as she heard the ugly, evil giggle behind her, she knew she did have to fight, no matter how much it'd hurt.

Task Two

Pulling the wand out of her robe pocket and whipping around in one movement, she racked her mind for a good offensive spell to give her a head start. Then she decided that maybe defensive charms were a better start, and she cast a Shield Charm around herself by screaming "Protego!" and shwishing her wand in a circle.

Her opponent, however, was not too slow and a battle emerged quickly, starting with Alisha screaming "Relashio!" Fiery sparks shot from the tip of her wand, but upon meeting the shield they reversed their way and almost hit their caster. Gemma used this moment of confusion to scream "Conjunctivis!" while flicking her wand carefully, and was rewarded with her opponent rubbing her eyes panicking. However the triumph didn't last long as Alisha used a simple Finite Incantatem and stopped not only the problem with her vision, but also destroyed the Shield around the other at the same time.

Gemme knew that she had to fight back the instinct of throwing a Crucio or even Avada Kedavra at the beauty with the rage-distorted features. Instead, hoping that the beast opposite her was as vain as she figured she'd be, she tried getting her off track by aiming a Furunculus at her, and indeed the girl was in shock for quite a moment. This was just enough to shout "Incendio!" and conjure a wall-like fire up between the two of them. Right after, she felt something like a punch to her stomach and was hauled backwards by a well-done revulsion jinx.

The damn thing also had her struggling for air, but at least the hate was easier to suppress with the fire keeping Alisha's face out of sight. While pondering her next step in what she thought was the safety of the fire wall, she saw a red ball of light shoot by her ear and hit a tree that exploded without fire, but with a might throwing her off her feet. A flying branch cut her leg from ankle to knee. Frantically, she grabbed for her wand which had gone flying, but it wasn't close enough. Finally she saw it and crawled to where it lay, ignoring the throbbing in her leg. As soon as it was back in her hand, she healed her leg with a simple Episkey, feeling the burn and then the cold of mending flesh.

Once she was sure the calf was alright again, she came to the conclusion that a fire in the middle of the forest might not be the best idea. After all, a few trees seemed to have become aflame already and the heat radiating from around her wasn't exactly pleasant. The wall the fire provided, though, was just to useful and thus Gemma used a flame-freezing charm to keep them there but make them harmless. Suddenly, she heard a cracking noise and she spun around only to come face to face with the enemy.

The expression on Alisha's face was that of a mad person, hatred and insanity mixed together to form a bizarre mask. She raised her wand, her mouth becoming a grin of true evil, and snarled quietly: "Goodbye, poor little betrayed girl. Av-"

Instinctively, Gemma lifted her own wand into the air and the first thing coming to her mind escaped her lips in a terrified whisper. "Sectumsempra!" She moved her wand in a line imitating a gash across he other's torso, she watched the red liquid and the desperate scream. Then, very slowly, she turned around and ran, ran until she couldn't run any more and at that point, she sunk to the floor, her face buried in her hands, and she cried. Cried for the life she had taken and for the happiness she had kept to herself. She had no regret, but she knew that she had done something horrible and that she was supposed to cry about it, so she did it.

[I hope this wasn't too gory. If it is, well, I'm sorry. Tell me and I won't do it the next time ^.~]

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