Rowan took a deep breath as Teal began to lead their rather small band into the thick of the forest. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion which suited her. Perhaps it was simply her adrenaline cause her senses to be extra accute. The thought of spliting up made her a bit weary but if that's what it took to resolve this then so be it.

As the band trooped through the woods, Rowan fell to the back of the group. Her charm was working wonders as she could see well and was no longer getting drenched. Her cloths were still wet but she could manage. Every few steps she did a 360 and checked behind them, in these woods one could never be too careful. From the corner of her eye she thought she saw movement and whipped her wand in that direction.

Nothing seemed to be out of place so she shrugged it off. Turning to glance at the groups progress she noticed someone else had looked in the same direction. What was her name? Blast her awfully memory. Faces she could remember but names she was horrible at. Sighing in frustration she resolved to ask her name and remember it if it killed her. Later though, right now she had other more important things to worry about. Like protecting her hide and those of her colleages.

Samson followed the others through the forest, trying to ignore the rain and looking out for signs of the centaurs OR the intruders. He had been in here before, but this time it was different. This was more dangerous and exciting than ever. He shivered excitedly.

Iridesca noticed that Rowan had seemed to have sensed something behind them also. She followed Rowan as they made their way to the back of the pack to keep a better look on things.

She made sure that she kept constant vigilance on their surroundings. As she was looking around, she thought she saw a blue light in the distance that seemed to be bobbing through the forest almost adjacent to them.

She looked at Rowan to see if she had seen the light too or if Iridesca's mind was just playing tricks on her.

Rowan smiled as Iridesca made her way to the back with her. It reassured her that someone was helping her watch the back of the group. Everything seemed to be still and silent which for a forest, even one like this, that was never a good sign.

She glanced beside her and noticed Iridesca staring at something off in the distance. Scanning the trees off in the distance she caught the slight glimmer of a light. The blue orb was bobbing up and down and keeping pace with the group. Weird.

Her senses went on high alert and she nodded to her companion. This was a potentially volatile situation that they were trying to solve and anything strange was a dead give away.

Violet glanced back from her position at the front with George and Teal. She wanted to make sure that no one fell behind. Everyone seemed to be fine though, so she really didn't have to worry. She noticed two girls in the back who seemed to be looking at something in the trees. She peered among the wet branches herself, but couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary. Maybe it was her angle. Maybe it was hiding behind trees and she couldn't see it or something. She decided that if anything further happened with the two ladies, she's go back there to check it out, but for now the situation seemed fine.

Iridesca continued to keep a constant eye on the glowing light...she motioned at her companion towards the light....she really hoped that she wasn't going crazy...She sped up walking through the group of people until she found a young woman that looked important who had taken notice to the two strangling in the back, "There's something back here that I think we need to take a look at...it just looks suspicious." she said in almost a whisper trying not to bring too much attention to herself...she walked back towards the back of the crowd of people to her post waiting for the young woman to follow her.

Violet inclined her head towards the girl so she could hear her over the downpour. She glanced into the woods again. Still, nothing. But she decided to follow the girl back anyway. It was time to take charge and resolve the problem. "All right, I suppose I'll take a look," she said. She followed the girl to her position in the back. "I'm Ms. Silvermoon, Head of the Beast Division," she said. "What is the problem here?" she asked the girl, with her best attempt at a smile despite the cold temperature.

"Ms. Silvermoon, I'm Iridesca from the Werewolf Capture Unit, nice to meet you," she tried to speak as softly as she could to not draw attention to herself but loud enough that she could be heard over the pounding rain around them. "Two of us have dropped to the back after hearing something following us...once back there, I spotted a bright green light to the right of the group...it looks like its hovering but its keeping our pace with us....it started as a light shimmer, but it seems to be getting bright..." she explained as she led Ms. Silvermoon towards the back of the crowd of people.

"Hello, Iridesca," said Violet. "It is nice to meet you, but I think we may have met before back at the Ministry." She stopped at the back of the crowd and tilted her head to one side, brow furrowed, as she listened to Iridesca's explanation. "Well, we are in an enchanted forest. There are many creatures who may be trying to lure one of us away from the rest of the group. I wouldn't worry about it, but come and talk to me if it really bothers you, all right?" she said kindly.

Iridesca shook her head and looked at Violet. She still didn't feel very comfortable with the situation but she wasn't about to question a superior and especially on her first mission. "Okey dokey, I'll keep a close eye and it and let you know if anything changes or if we spot anything more menacing." she said confidently...but in her head she was thinking through this mission...the owl said that this was a dangerous and important mission...well, shouldn't they have seen something or atleast been told what was going on...she didn't have very good patience...plus even if a forest was enchanted shouldn't we check out anything weird...o well, she thought and went back to her constant vigilance of the forest from the back of the group...she just kept thinking something's gotten happen soon...right?

Violet smiled at the girl. "All right. We should be getting close to the centaurs pretty soon, so it really is nothing to worry about." She hoped. "But still, let me know if you get uncomfortable. Thanks, Iridesca," she said. Violet patted her employee on the shoulder and walked back to her position in the front with Teal and George.

Corvus walked backwards slowley. Suddenly she ended up bumping into something, she turned around quickley, her wand out. but before she let a curse fly, she stopped. "It's just a tree" she breathed.

She suddenly felt a creepy presence all around her. She was convinced that not all was as it seemed.

The trek through the forest was more strenuous than Teal had anticipated. His charm was holding up well, but the tree’s branches were still giving him a beat down.

The Department Head was sure he’d seen creatures in the distance that mocked the movements centaurs tended to make as they were circling their prey, but they were in too deep to turn back now. His adrenaline was pumping like it never had before.

That was when it happened, Teal saw six centaurs close in their path up head. He quickly craned his head to the back of the group and six more were closing from behind. His peripherals told him there were at least seven on either side of their group.

They were surrounded, and horribly outnumbered. The centaurs were talking too each other, but the rain droned out anything that Teal would usually be able to hear.

Out of nowhere a shower of arrows filled the tree line. A sharp, horrible pain stabbed into his stomach as he looked down to see an arrow jutting out of it. He’d been hit, others probably had too unless they’d managed to put up their shields. Surely they had, Teal couldn’t quite believe he hadn’t…

A dark feeling pressed his mind in the midst of the chaos. He was getting old, too old for a dangerous job like this. His son Cy, only had one person left in this world. And Teal was that guy. He couldn’t do it anymore. Teal and his troup were hopeless, they’d have to meet back at the Ministry and re-plan.

“ABORT! YOU HEAR ME! ABORT NOW! MEET AT THE MINISTRY, AT ONCE.” Teal knew good and well that he was done, he needed to get fixed up. He needed to get OUT.

So with LOUD crack, Teal Andrus sluggishly apparated out of the warzone.

As Violet assumed her position in front, she mulled over the conversation she'd just had with Iridesca. The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. It troubled her. Why should something be following them? She furrowed her brow unconsciously as she thought about it....
Her musings were interrupted as something flashed, almost out of sight, in her peripheral vision. She turned her head reflexively and saw shadowy figures closing in from all sides in the trees. She froze. Time seemed to slow. She's known in the back of her head something like this was bound to happen, but Violet hadn't anticipated a fight. She put up a shield cautiously, just in case.

Her violet eyes scanned their surroundings quickly. She heard the arrows before she saw them. Strangely, Violet couldn't hear the rain anymore, only twang, whoosh as the weapons were released. Finally her adrenaline kicked in and she ducked just in time as a volley of arrows descended on them, missing her face by just a few centimeters. Teal jerked a little beside her and she realized with a jolt of fear he must have been hit.

Her senses came back all at once and suddenly the roar around her was deafening. Through it, she dimly heard Teal's bellowing from right beside her--but she couldn't make out the words. She looked at him in panic, but he was gone with a loud crack. She grasped quickly that he must have been calling off the mission.

"ABORT!" she yelled as well. "IT'S OFF! MEET US BACK AT THE MINISTRY IMMEDIATELY!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, as loud as she was capable of, hoping that someone else had heard and could repeat it for those who hadn't. Violet Apparated back to the Ministry, whee things would be calmer, and the last thing she was aware of in the forest before she was whisked back to the office was the pounding rain and a feeling of fear for her employees.

Yaaaaaaaaawn.

They weren't HER people. She wasn't stupid enough to bring her wet behind the ears newbies into the Forbidden Forest. She had no one to order around.

This was all Violet's territory. Let HER order Team Beastie about.

George Disapparated.

Because she liked her person NOT perforated by multiple Centaur Arrows.

Bloody Uppity Buggers. She was glad they had elected to be classified as Beasts.

CRACK!

Iridesca whirled on the spot to see Centaurs around her. She flicked her wrist and her wand came flying out of it's holster on her right wrist and she took up a defensive stance. She was ready for anything the Centaurs threw at her. She could see the group was outnumbered at the back but wasn't sure at the first. She watched as everyone in the group from the Ministry started preparing for a fight.

She tuned her ears in on the centaurs and her surroundings trying as hard as she could to hear over the pounding rain. She heard a huge whooshing above her and knew instantly that it was fixing to rain arrows down on the group. She flicked her wrist and yelled, "Protego!" to set her shield charm. The arrows began bouncing off of her shield immediately.

You could tell instantly who had not gotten their shield charms up in time. She could tell there were some injuries and some major from the screams and grunts around her.

She began reviewing her surroundings to see what actions could be taken, but at the same time she heard the call for retreat coming from the front followed by a ripple of cracks as other apparated out of the forest.

Iridesca instantly followed suit and with a load and quick Clack, she had apparated back to the ministry and the whooshing of the arrows and screams of those around her still echoed in her ears.

A loud crack could be heard miles from the outskirts of Hogsmeade, and Tetrus Santana apparated in front of the Forbidden forest. The sun had almost completely set by now, but it was always dark in the Forest none-the-less.

He had three vial’s of Basilisk venom stored safely away, it would work well enough.

Looking at his watch, he caught on to the fact that he was fifteen minutes early. His dark eyes looked into the forest, of which fog was steadily seeping out. Clouds in the west were beginning to cover the sky, but they didn’t appear to be rainy.

Kasandra had her hands stuffed into her pockets- she decided she would apparate into town- and go for a friendly walk towards the forest. Her usual bright pink dreads we hanging down from her head. Glasses weren't hanging from her nose as they often did when in the offices.

As she neared the forest- she tried to make out the figure in the distance. Someone else was early. Kass shook her head back and forth and her dreads shrunk down- and were replaces by short messy black hair.

"Good day sir." Kass smiled- pulling out a unicorn horn. "I don't really specialize in centaurs, would this do?"

Pandora fastened her travelling cloak, picked up her bag and stepped out into the night. She apparated to the edge of the Forbidden Forest near Hogsmeade and peered around. In the distance she could see people talking and recognised the distinctive figure of Tetrus Santana. Walking briskly, she approached them.

She cleared her throat, "Good evening. Sir, all I could find was this."

Pandora pulled a large, circular silver goblin made shield from her bag. It had belonged to her grandfather and she would be glad to be rid of it. She was nervous about the mission, but they were good nerves, the kind she remembered having before exams, the kind that increased her focus.

June appeared in a flourish of blonde hair and swirling hemline as she apparated onto the spot, a look of boredom fixated onto her unsmiling lips. Through droopy eyelids, she surveyed her surroundings, lifting her nose in disdain at the muck and her insipid coworkers. Though the witch appeared decidedly apathetic, her heart beat a bit faster against her rib cage, and the corners of her lips began to curl upward in her smirking, malevolent grin. June was not one for desk work, and flaunting the skill she possessed rather agreed with her.

The red nailpolish of her toes glimmered like rubies through her peep-toe wedges as she strutted towards Tetris, the breeze playing with the hemline of her short robe. She looked him up and down, rolling her wand across her smooth lips and biting softly on the end, her playful grin now turning manic in anticipation. "This should be... Fun," she cooed, digging around in her Louis Vuitton for the gift that she had selected for those vapid, lousy half-breeds unfit to breathe her air. EURGH. Finally, she extracted a golden telescope with astronomical signs engraved into the sides. Might as well give it to the animals. She certainly wasn't going to use it. "I thought about investing in a few polos for the centaurs but a telescope should do, hm?"

Katalin was nervous that she was late, she was holding the goblin sword that was her grandfather's sword to give to the centaurs.

With a little crack, Samson vane entered the Hogwarts grounds and walked over quickly to his collegues of the Department of Magical Creatures.
It had took him a long time to find something the centaurs might find interesting and like, but after hours of thinking he was forced to take an old golden telescope with him inot the forest.
It had belonged to his great great grandfather originally and had passed on from father to son in his family. Always, the father had told the son to use it well. Samson would have a hard time handing it over to the centaurs, but he thought that he was using it well, because it might help the ministry to rule over dark wizards.
He walked over to Mr. Santana. "Hello Sir.", he nodded, "I´ve brought this golden telescope. I hope it´ll be of use, it has been in my family for a very long time."

Violet appeared, literally out of nowhere, as she Apparated into the forest. It was cloudy and foggy, but it wasn't raining. Already an improvement from the last mission. She looked around herself as that fact registered--it was a lot easier to see today despite the mist. She could see the silhouettes of figures from a way off, so she set off in that direction to join them. Before long she found herself standing before a small group of her employees as well as Tetrus.
"Hello everyone," said Violet. She smiled to the group, and then walked forward to address Mr. Santana.
"Hello, sir. I brought a gift for the centaurs like you asked." She held up a large jar in which was everlasting wildfire. "I'm sure that the centaurs can build fires for themselves, but this will make it easier for them to set up and put out fires. They can simply...pour, if that's the word...a few of the flames onto wood and the fire will spread quickly. Then when they are done, they can scoop the flames back into the jar." It was useful, in her opinion. It would definitely come in handy during the colder months.

CRACK!

Antwone materialized next to the other unfamiliar cohorts.

Hours earlier he had been wondering around the empty offices at the Ministry, pondering where everyone had gone until he came across a bulletin board stating that everyone was to report here on this date thirty minutes ago. Immediately after reading, Antwone extracted his wand and turned on his heel, dissapparting to this spot.

He had appeared closet to a somewhat tall woman, by female standards, with long brown hair. She was caring a jar with what looked like small wood-chips. Next to her was the head of the department: dread locks and shaggy. He too held something between his hands: a vial of a somewhat greenish-transparent liquid. Huddled around him were four other women and one other man: one was a somewhat tall woman, though shorter than the first, whom Antwone assumed to be metamorphmagus due to her ever-changing hair color; she was carrying a unicorn's horn. Another of the group was a women of average height with dark black hair, whom carried a large silver shield, most-likely Goblin-made by the look of its detail. Farther, a blonde woman was carrying a golden telescope while the brunette next to her clumsily held a magnificently huge sword. Finally, Antwone's eyes drifted to the only other male who seemed to be there, besides Tetrus and himself. He seemed very young and he also held a golden telescope.

Antwone wondered why they all were carrying an odd assortment of things. He had only taken a glance at the bulletin board and it was his first day. He had saw something about centaurs and the forbidden forest but that was it. He wasn't so sure if his presence would have helped or hindered his colleagues proceedings today. He wasn't sure if his disease would ward off the centaurs, or make them more angry.

As Antwone sniffed the cold, damp air the three scars across his face seemed to dance up and down as his nose inhaled and exhaled. He couldn't smell anything close by, there was a unicorn and her baby foal but they were at least a kilometer away and heading off in the opposite direction.

After watching and listening to the tallest of the women speak about her wood-chips in her jar, he stepped forward to Tetrus. Though the department head was inches shorter than Antwone, his dread locks and shaggy wear was a bit intimating by sight, but Antwone had dealt with people who were far more sinister, or creatures, rather.

"Sorry I'm late," Antwone had said, holstering his beech wand into his traveling cloak. "It's my first day, it is. I only just got in when I saw the bulletin. Name's Antwone Thomas." He stuck out his wand hand to shake.

Looking at the unicorn horn, Tetrus nodded once. “Should do just fine my friend.” He said lazily as his brown eyes continued to stare into the forest. Although unicorns and centaurs usually inhabited the same area, unicorns were very care and difficult to trap; especially to centaurs.

So an item as rare as a unicorn horn could be quite handy indeed.


In the distance, the department head heard a faint crack. Before too long, he and Kasandra had been joined by Pandora. Wow, a Goblin made shield, impressive indeed. “Good find sista, good find.” Even Tetrus, who was a very resourceful man, could not come across one of those.

The next witch to appear was a real site to behold. Young, blonde, breathtakingly beautiful… yet quite malevolent are scary to behold. His lip curled into a sinister grin as she spoke. Her voice was bone chilling. “Ahh, very clever sista’. Don’t be offended when I tell you this June, but I’m almost surprised you decided to grace us with your presence this evening.”

She was very strong willed, seemed very hard to control.


As Katalin Trigwell appeared, Tetrus winked at her. That sword would work very well indeed.

Tetrus looked again as he heard another figure approaching. It was Vane, who seemed to have a telescope. Just as June had brought. “Yes my friend,” but as Tetrus said friend often, he never truly meant it in the words actual context. “That telescope, will serve us well.” Giving a final nod, he looked into the forest as his division head was emerging.

“Good evening sista’.” He said, as he looked to what she had brought. Hmm, a very curious idea indeed. “That is tricky magic, a very good idea. Fire like that is not easy to come by.” Tetrus’ dark eyes continued to gaze into the forest, almost as if he was waiting for something to happen… for the right moment.

Looking at his watch as his next employee apparated onto the spot, he sighed and clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “Just do not let it happen again.” The Department Head informed him with a mild glare, “But, it’s a pleasure brotha.” The department head shook the man’s hand firmly, “I’m Tetrus.” Tetrus wasn't the kind of man to offer his surname, not that kind of man at all. His dark eyes bore into Antwone's methodically as he dropped contact, then pulling out his wand.

Muttering a spell under his breath, a large orb of light flew from the tip of his wand and made its way into the forest. Why had he done that? Only Tetrus knew.

Looking to all of his employee’s yet again, Tetrus voiced them with a tone of finality. “Any questions before we depart?”