The hissing was close and the Wampus need no Supersensory Charm to know this. The hairs on the back of her neck rose despite the lack of chill (save for that coming from her Isa rune) and she shifted her balance onto her toes in preparation for any swift moments she would surely need to take. Slowly and cautiously pivoting to follow the sound of the hissing, her thoughts briefly shifted to the self armoring invisible shield she had cast earlier as a first line of defense against the mother Erumpent should she have felt the need to charge. She was well aware of its usefulness against exploding, severing or puncturing spells, but now the humidity and tension of the moment made her question it stability against physical attacks.

Particularly those highly venomous fangs runespoors possessed.

But before she could do so much as twitch her wrist to perform another defensive spell upon herself (only mere seconds passing since she had leaped to her feet and the hissing intensified) she felt something latch onto the heel of her thick combat boot from behind. The heat and humidity surely must be getting to her to have missed spotting such an easily identifiable creature, but she could spend her time berating herself over this slip up later.

Reflexes kicking in, Valerie moved to kick violently in attempt to dislodged what her racing mind could only assume was a runespoor now with its fangs piercing the black leather. Adrenaline preventing her from knowing for certain whether or not her Loricatus was protecting her fragile human flesh, the seventeen year old grimaced in pain as one of the heat cramps in her thigh pulled at the muscles and forced her to take a knee. Body twisted uncomfortable from the fall, her eyes met those of all three heads of the runespoor. The sixth year instinctively hissed back in rage (but she was no Parselmouth so this naturally had no sway over the orange and black striped snake) and gave one more feeble kick that only resulted in a yowl as muscles in her thigh spasmed and jerked involuntarily.

“Flipendo Duo,” she sneered, her wand pointed at the six foot body of the runespoor. Whether or not that would dislodge the creature was unknown (not to mention her aim was a bit shaky given the initial wave of shock distracting her focus) but her body and mind had merged and were running on pure adrenaline alone at present.

It felt like an eternity, but the thoughts that came next were almost instantaneous to her next movements. Her eyes took in the sight of three heads, meaning that the other two had not grown agitated enough with the rightmost head (the critic) just yet. Nothing in her mind considered agitating the critic enough to influence the other two to bite its head off, however. Perhaps an ironic lack of consideration considering that the Wampus herself could draw parallels between herself and that head. Instead her attention moved to the middle head. The dreamer. Knowing that it was the middle head’s influence that caused a runespoor to remain stationary for days while lost in its slithering daydreams, her wand twirled in her hand to readjust its hold (something she thankfully had not lost in thanks to her Gripping Charm) and focused on the centermost head. Hoping of exploited the elaborate imagination the creature was known for (her intent to solve part of the riddle of roaming free as it would quite literally be stilled by its dreaming and allowing her to free her foot from its fangs), she quickly traced a small circle over the runespoor, “Sentio Somnium,” and was relieved to see the familiar pale purple string of light dripped from her wand and onto its head. Panting, her breathing trying desperately to keep up with her pounding heart while also subconsciously berating herself for a repeat tactic. Or perhaps a pleasant way to bookend this experience for her.

A thought laced with much sarcasm.

She need not do much. Just enough to entice the dreamer and get its fangs to latch on (figuratively) to the illusion and fantasy that would subdued the other two heads like dominos. Thus she focused on creating a especially colorful world (unlike the desert she had seen in pictures of Burkina Faso) where the runespoor was king and more powerful than that of a basilisk. And it could fly because for some reason that elementary thought crossed her mind and the runespoor sprouted leathery wings reminiscent to those of a threstral. There was also rainbow snow falling as well, perhaps wishful thinking in that she wanted to be somewhere with snow over this hell. Disjointed but visually stimulating, it was the best her exhausted brain and body could come up with under the circumstances but would hopefully prove enough to lure the runespoor into its still slumber.