Out of the corner of your eye, something cherry in colour catches your attention. There, in the middle of the African coastal forest, is what appears to be a knobless door just standing on its own.

Is the heat getting to you and making you see things? Or is this something you should go investigate?

Yeah. She saw you too, Mother Erumpent. Meeting the creature’s gaze as she continued to create distance between the three of them, Valerie could not shake the longing to also collect samples of erumpent horn, tail, and its exploding fluid somehow. Although she was not foolish enough to waste time doing so, the nag was there. Such highly valued potion ingredients did not just fall into one’s hands so easily. Simply nodding her head curtly towards the pair as they faded from sight, the Wampus allowed her annoyance with the second task and her superfluous collection of rare potions ingredients that had turned out to be nothing more than the longings of her dizzy daydream fill her. Doing so somehow helping her remain on task.

As she walked, however, the sweltering heat of the coastal forest began to take its toll upon Valerie. A resident of the Pacific Northwest primarily, these levels of humidity were not those she was accustomed to and soon sweat was stinging her eyes it rolled down her brow and clung to her pale lashes. Soon her mouth began to go dry and she licked her lips (smacking them together trying to produce saliva to wetten its interior) and she was forced to pause a moment (hunched over with her hands to her knees) to catch her breath. Hot and humid, she could feel her uniform clinging to her back in an almost suffocating fashion. But she had to keep going.

Chest heaving, the seventeen year old straighten up a bit too quickly and immediately stumbled. No. This would not due. She was likely to pass out with this prolonged exposure. She could just hear some of the sniggering from the onlookers now. Oh look, the Snow Queen is melting. Snarling to herself and using her sleeve to wipe her brow once more, Valerie rid herself of these thoughts (for there were of little consequence and not the sort she need occupy her mind at present) and drew forth her cherry wood wand. “Aguamenti,” she whispers, electing to spare some of her concentration and not casting it nonverbal at the moment. This and her own voice served as a reminder for things. Soon a steady stream was pouring forth from her wand and the Wampus leaned over to lap up some of the crystal clear liquid. “Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself,” she mused to herself. Words that the Wampus hardly lived by herself but brought a bit of humor to her situation. Taking another moment or two to pour water over her hand and promptly wiping her face with is, she gave her wand a flick to end the Water-Making Spell.

Refreshed was not exactly the word she would use to describe herself at present, but at least a bit of the dizzy feeling had subsided.

Proceeding further and feeling her pulse quicken (her neck straining uncomfortably from the pounding in her carotid artery) she stopped when she came upon a door. A door in the middle of the forest. Interesting.

Wand clutched in her hand she approached the cherry red door and circled around it like a feline circling its prey ready to pounce. No knob. No lock. But clearly the purpose here was to open it somehow. Giving the doorframe a cursory kick with her boot, the Wampus would be lying if she said her reflex was telling her simply to blast a hole right smack in the middle of it. Or perhaps it was the lingering frustrations fueling this desire. In any case, she steadied her hand and took several steps back to take in the strange sight while lightly chewing on the pad of her thumb.

She could already feel her mind going into overdrive and she knew it was a dangerous game to play as the elements continued to weaken her. Open or transform, that was the question with the door at the moment. Lacking a knob or lock implied much to her (perhaps unwisely) in that the objective was not to unlock persay, but rather pass through. Red. Was there anything to be culled from the choice of color? Other than red clearly stood out among the greenery, but so would have yellow or orange or some horrendous shade of yellow. But no, they had chosen the color red but all she immediately pulled from this was that color red symbolized magic and active energy. Both of which were incredibly obvious at the moment. This and the color’s association with runes in that red runes stimulated the circulation of the blood and the senses. Which again, was not the most helpful of thought processes other than her focus shifting to those of runic nature.

Taking a moment to conjure herself some more water to drink and splash her face with, Valerie attempted to narrow down her swimming thoughts. Thoughts that were going to drown her if she permitted them.

Door. A portal leading from one area to the next in its most basic principle. Keep it at that. Simple and stupid, as her uncle would say.

Folding her arms across her chest now, the sixth year stood in front of the knobless door with half a mind to just knock on it. That was what one did with doors. You knocked. Maybe doing so would cause a written cue to appear on it. Although the Wampus was fairly certain that the aim was clear. She needed to carve the correct rune into the door. Rune, or bindrune, or perhaps even Icelandic magical stave. Although the third option her mind entertained produced only one result, Lásabrjótur, but considering there was no lock to speak of on the door she quickly ruled it out. Perhaps she was taking the task too literally, but it helped her weary heat stricken mind from overworking. There was nothing to unlock but there was something to pass through.

“Red,” she muttered to herself. Was there a color association to be had with runes or was it simply a choice in that red simply strengthened the power of runes? If her work here was meant to turn this into a portal to take her elsewhere, it was only reasonable to assume thus. Which prompted another idea (one which was perhaps a bit excessive but it was becoming increasingly difficult to focus with the perspiration dripping down her pale features and her clothing to smother her skin. Or perhaps those distant fwoopers had had more of an influence on her sanity than she had initially given them credit for.

Breathing deeply she traced an ‘x’ shape with her wand to cast Focalia and then selected a smaller piece of wood that she then snapped over her knee to break into a smaller piece. Under normal circumstances she would fall back on her charmswork to assist her, but not this day. “[b]Intaglio Isa...Isa...Isa,” she spoke clearly while tracing her wand down over the piece of wood in her hand. A simplistic rune to be sure, perhaps it could serve a dual purpose in keeping her head cool as well as her body. Brushing her thumb over the carving while she whispered the galdr until it had activated and then slipped it into her other pocket.

Now, back to this stupid red door.

Her mind continued to journey to Kenaz, the torch, but also a rune known to represent ‘Opening’. Seeing as she was faced with a complete dead end at the moment, she could certainly do with the alternate meaning of the rune which associated it with a portal or doorway leading from darkness to light. There was also the notion of transformation (like that of a phoenix’s flames) that caused for continued pause on the particular rune. But was this perhaps too much of a stretch? Valerie could not rule out Raidho just yet and the obvious implications it had with travel in the physical sense. A journey, relocation, and change of place or setting. Or was she perhaps meant to bind these two runes (perhaps with a third as well?) to create a runic charm? “Safe Travel Rune Charm?” she whispered aloud to herself while circling around the door once more.

This was the issue with cramming for subjects, the knowledge and understanding did not come naturally and the Wampus was left over analyzing and wasting precious time.

The more she thought about things, the more a Safe Travel Rune Charm began to take its hold despite initial thoughts shifting to Kenaz, thus she approached the door and upon knocking on it simply to humor herself (if there was a knock-knock joke to be had she was certainly not be laughing) pointed her wand towards the center to begin carving the bindrune into the door’s red surface and beginning with the run meant to light up the path from one locale to another.

“Intaglio Sowilo…”