Going through his textbook was taking so long. Not because the information was hard to find, or anything, but because Toby's focus just kept wandering. He was SUPPOSED to be reading about Ursa Major, but about ten minutes had passed before he realised he'd gone ahead and read through the information about a bunch of other constellations and asterisms. But he'd caught himself now, at least, and had a pretty good idea of what to write about.
Having loaded up the business end of his quill with ink this time, Toby hurriedly scribbled out what was supposed to be a decent size paragraph, but ended up with a little more than he bargained for, but that was okay too.
SPOILER!!: the writing part thingy
The Ursa Major constellation basically makes up the shape of a big bear, and it actually means something like that in Latin, though that's not very surprising. Anyways, different cultures have always had different ideas about Ursa Major, but a lot of them pretty much agree on the idea that it's a bear. Even just in Greek mythology there's all kinds of stories about Ursa Major. Basically, Zeus had a wife, and then a ton of girlfriends. He had this one girlfriend in particular, Callisto, and some people say Hera turned her into a bear out of revenge, and others say that Zeus turned her into a bear to hide her. Either way, Callisto was stuck as a bear and was in the woods, and her son Arcas (who was a hunter) ended up hunting and fatally killing her. BUT, as she started dying and turned back into a human, Zeus turned both Callisto and Arcas into bears and put them up in the stars. Callisto became Ursa Major and Arcas became Ursa Minor.
So what magical powers could Ursa Major provide you with, if you carved it into a pumpkin for Halloween? Well... I'm not entirely sure. Maybe something to do with HIDING, if you go with the idea that Zeus was hiding Callisto. Or perhaps carving this on a pumpkin will help you turn into a bear. OR! It's like... protective magic. Because Ursa Major is Callisto, who's a mother, and her son is up there too, and mothers are usually protective of their sons (I mean, they're supposed to be) so it would make sense for it to be protective magic. And turning them into constellations was protecting them from bad things happening, right? So yeah. Protection magic, I'm going with that.
WOAH-KAY. That was most difficult part done and over with, really, which was awesome because leaving the funnest part 'til last meant you always ended on a good note. Unless he was running out of time. Uh. Hm. Best hurry up and carve dat pumpkin.