Quote:
Originally Posted by
hermionesclone 
Teamwork. Nodnod. Alec smiled, glad about that 'teamwork' part because he didn't know how long it would have taken him to get to this point if he wasn't working with someone like West. It usually took him a little too long to figure things out thanks to the fact that, upon reading riddles, his brain usually went into overdrive with questions.
While West examined the plaque, Alec headed over towards the circles and sat down. His eyebrows furrowed itself as he looked over each of the circles. What was it that West had said? Question, obstacles, past things... then, at the bottom, immediate next steps, calculated steps and overall outcome. His eyes lingered for a moment on the overall outcome circle. A rune... there was a rune that was going to land on that and get them out of there?
... And then West was speaking, making Alec look up at the boy. Draw them in the dirt? His eyebrows furrowed itself again as the boy looked down at the ground again. Draw them... all twenty four... It did sound like a good plan, he was going to give the boy that. "It sounds easier than conjuring up wooden rods," he started, looking up again and nodding, "And if we do pick randomly... and if our fingers or wands lands in between two runes, both of those runes are selected for that circle?" And it wasn't as if they had to use all twenty four runes, right? This was probably him just trying to make sense of the whole procedure. Probably.
"Yeah, let's do that! It wouldn't hurt to give it a try!" he said, grinning slightly and rolling up his sleeves. He got up from his seat and shuffled backwards a bit so that there was a bit of space between him and the circles. He bent down again and, reaching out a hand, started drawing on the first eight runes of the Elder Futhark. Futhark. F-U-TH-A-R-K. With a G and a W at the end, which made up the first line. He made a small face at Raidho before continuing on with the other three.
When he was done, Alec paused and looked around at the runes, smiling a little. Standing up, the boy stepped back and looked over at West. "You want to do the next line?" Or the line after that. Alec wasn't too fussed.
With Alec taking care of Fehu through Wunjo, West had no problem starting on the next aett, in a line below those that Alec had drawn in the dirt. Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perthro, Algiz, and Sowilo. He focused on each of them, ensuring that the lines were just so, and each was readable and recognizable.
Having finished that line, he started on the next too, again below so that there were three rows, each containing the eight runes of its respective aett. Tiwaz, Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Ingwaz, Dagaz, and lastly, Othala.
Would they need to invoke them?
"I guess we should try choosing them first, and then if that doesn't work, we can invoke them all and choose again." And this part, the choosing, that was where Alec would do much better than West, who knew the theory but had difficulty with the execution when it came to the divination stuff.
What if they were entirely on the wrong track though? If only there was some way to know...
And as for how to choose with some randomness...
"Maybe close your eyes and toss your wand up, and where the point hits closest, that's the rune to choose? And then when you've got six... we can write them here, and see what happens." He tapped the six empty circles that would make up the spread. From there they could figure if they needed to invoke all the runes, or if they needed to interpret it in a particular way, or if they were... back to the drawing board.