Ira was happy that only five more runes were left to be carved. And then she would be free to go, and maybe eat something in the kitchen, because she was really feeling hungry. So she just removed a small toffee from her bag, hoping that no one had noticed her and then, putting her head down, under the workbench, gulped it down.

Once her toffee had been eaten, Ira continued the carvings. With a sigh, she looked at the next runes she was going to create and saw that some of these shapes seemed rather hard too.

Mannaz seemed harder than others. Yes, it was similar to Ehwaz but with an extra dash. She concentrated a little more as she tried to create that one, "Intalgio Mannaz... Mannaz... Mannaz." But the shape didn't seem to come out right. So she decided to go the manual way. So she picked up the gouge tool and gently carved the rune into the oak wood.

She read that Mannaz symbolized all of humanity, like our circle of family and friends. It seemed to be based along the spiritual lines.

Laguz was the next rune to carve. This rune was not considered to be a good one because it meant uncertainty, which was never a fun feeling. Ira carved it quite easily. Ingwaz as easy too. She read in her textbook that it was a rune of growth. And it also represented wholeness of the Earth or of humanity.

She wondered who or what decided the shapes for these runes... Because some were so easy, and others were a bit on hard side!

Anyways, 2 more runes left!

Once Lily had her branch all she had to do was cut it into pieces. Carefully, she picked up her saw to start cutting disks. After a while she took a break because cutting the wood was hard work. Back and forth.... Back and forth... after a good period of time she finally had her 2 inch disks for her runes. So she put the saw down and picked up her wand to clear away the sawdust. Now she could get started on carving her runes.

Only two more runes to go! Ira hurried up carving the runes. The second last was Dagaz. This rune was a reminder of the cyclical nature of all things. With a smile on her face that she pointed her wand and cast the carving spell on the next disc and focused on the rune.. "Intalgio Dagaz... Dagaz," There, was her second last carved disc.

That left only Othala now. Ira looked into the textbook for its meaning and read that it was the rune of the ancient clan lands. Also it was a physical representation of both our past and our destiny. That seemed something tough, Ira didn't fully grasp its meaning, so she decided to look it up later on.

For now, she repeated the spell, and focused on this rune. And yes, it carved out as she wanted it to be.

So finally! Her rune set was complete!!

Ira grinned, looking at her discs, and mentally patted herself for completing it. Now the last thing was left to do...

Being fairly new at this wizarding thing, Lily didn't trust carving her runes with her wand. Even though she was finishing up her first year at the school, she still felt that she needed more practice to be good with her wand. So for now she picked up her gouge tool and set to work.

First was Fehu. Lily carefully took her piece of wood and her tool and carved out the rune that looked kinda like an F. It wasn't really that hard for her but it was definitely going to be a lot of work.

Next was Uruz. This one looked kinda like a n. Then came Thursiaz, Ansuz, Raidho, and Kenaz. The next one was Gebo, which looked like an X. The last rune in the first set was Wunjo, which looked kinda like a P. Once Lily was done with Wunjo, her hand was kinda tired so she took a short break before moving on to the next set.

Nate put his first aett to the side when he was finished with that. So he took eight more runes for the second Aett. He then picked up his wand. Next he took a deep breath. Pointed his wand at one of the runes, and said "Intalgio Hagalaz Hagalaz." Slowly the rune was being carved into the piece of wood. He put that one to the side, and grabbed another one. He took another deep breath, and said "Intalgio Nauthiz Nauthiz." That rune was being slowly engraved on the piece of wood.

He took another piece of wood. Took a deep breath, and said "Intalgio Isa Isa." Nothing happened. So he tried again. Took a deep breath, and said "Intalgio Isa Isa." Still nothing happened. So he tried again yet a third time. Took a deep breath, and said "Intalgio Isa Isa." Finally the rune was being carved onto the piece of wood. He put that one to the side, and grabbed another piece. Next he said "Intalgio Jera Jera." That rune was being inscribed into the piece of wood. he put that piece to the side.

He was getting a bit tired of using his wand so he put that down. Then he grabbed the gouging tool. He then looked at his book to see how to carve the rune into the piece of wood. He simply thought of it as one diagnol up, a line down, then another diagnol up. So he started to carve that into the wood. Once he was done with that he put it to the side, then grabbed another piece. He looked at the next rune to see how to carve it in. He thought of that as an arrow down, then a line down, then an arrow up. So he carved that rune in, and put it to the side.

Now his hand was starting to get cramped. So he put down the gouging tool, and started to move his hand around. He was moving it side to side, front to back, and a circular motion. He decided to go back to his wand. He took a deep breath, and said "Intalgio Algiz Algiz." He watched as the rune was being put on the piece of wood. Next he put that to the side, then grabbed another piece of wood. Took a deep breath then said "Intalgio Sowilo Sowilo." Slowly the rune was being inscribed on the piece of wood. He was done with the second Aett. He then put that piece to the side.

Finally her rune set was complete! She arranged the rune discs in order according to their Aett, and then sighed. Now came the bad part!

But wait. Professor had given them a choice to use paint, no? That would be definitely better than using blood, right? No need to pick her finger! But then Ira pondered over it. Maybe blood made the runes stronger? So she decided to stick with blood.

Her finger was already pricked, and in fact the blood had clotted too. So she just pinched it again, wincing at the slight pain. Then squeezing the finger, she coaxed the blood to come out. She held her finger over the runes discs, watching the blood fall down on the discs drop by drop.

But it wasn't enough. Her previously pricked finger was just enough for the First Aett. She still had to stain the second and third Aetts. So was there any other way other than prick another finger?

But she couldn't figure any other solution. Maybe it would have been a better idea to use paint. But no, others were using their own blood, so, so would she.

So, she pricked another finger, and winced at the pain again. Then taking a deep breath, the second year held her dripping finger over them one by one, watching the blood drop on each rune. Ira focused on the meanings of the runes, at least as much as she could remember.

Yes!! She was now done! The ancient runes final was complete! Yipee! She lightly punched her hand in the air! After all, it been one long and tiring final!

Yipee!!!

Lily had finished the first set of eight runes so now she moved on to the next set. Picking up the next piece of wood, she started to carve. This one was Hagalaz. When she had finished, the carving looked like a N. She put that aside with the other runes before moving on to the next one.

Next was Nauthiz, Isa, and Jera. Then came Eihwaz which looked kinda like a S only more rigid. The ravenclaw moved on to Perthro and Algiz, each one unique but not too difficult to carve. It was a good thing she had a picture of the runes... otherwise she would be able to get maybe two done without using magic.

The last one in this set was Sowilo. This one looked like a backwards Z and kinda tilted a bit. Once she was done she placed her gouge tool down and took a little break again, this time taking in a bit more of the scenery. It was very peaceful here. Looking around, she saw some of her classmates finished so she got back to work quickly.

Reaching into his pocket Oakey took out his wand and pointed it at his red-wooded tree branch. Diffindo he spoke and sliced a piece of the wood off of the branch. He lifted it up and inspected the cut piece, It looks perfect to me He thought as he sliced up the rest of the branch with the severing charm. He pointed his wand to clean up the mess he had made, but looked at the bench. It was spotless, Guess it's because I didn't use the saw. Now his next step would be to carve the runic letters into the pieces he just cut up.

Sierra stood there, trying to think of a better plan, yet nothing came to mind. As she looked around, she realized most people were far ahead of her. Some even had their rune set completely made.

Yippy skippy.

Sierra sighed then turned and walked a few feet to the left. The branch had almost tripped her by the time she noticed its presence. Her eyes grew wide, and she stumbled a little but never fell. Regaining her balance, she looked around to see if anyone had seen her.

No one.

So bending down, she scooped up the fallen branch then carried it a little closer to the others. Sitting down, she looked at it and tried to figure out which type of tree it'd come from.

Taking his wand once more, Oakey picked up a random piece of wood he just cut. Intaglio he said as he carved "Fehu" shape into the wood. He held the piece up and blocked the sun with it as he inspected it. It looked great, now onto the next one. Intaglio He spoke again as the shape of "Uruz" was carved into the piece of red wood. He held this one up against the sun as well then set it down next to "Fehu" as he was satisfied with it's outcome.

He continued this process of carving the runes into the wood, then holding them up to he sun to look at them better with the five he just did. He set down the small piece of wood next to the other five, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz, Gebo, and with Wunjo finished that made eight.

Lily only had eight more runes to carve and then she could paint them. This last set started out with Tiwaz, which looked like an arrow pointing up. As she finished using the gouge tool on that rune she placed it off to the side with the other 16 that had already been carved. She then proceeded onto the remaining seven runes. Berkano looked like a B. Ehwaz looked like a M. Mannaz also looked like a M but also had a little added stuff. Then she carved Laguz, Ingwaz, and Dagaz and placed the carved but unpainted runes off to the side. She had one circle of wood left and only one rune left to carve. Last was Othala. Carefully, Lily carved out the last rune and added it to the others before placing the gouge tool down on the workbench. Now all she had to do was paint the runes and she would be done.

Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz

Nerida picked up a round blank firethorn wood rune and looked at Fehu in her textbook, Fehu looked like a oddly shaped upward F, and it meant weath and domestic cattle. She picked up her wand in her other hand and said Intaglio! Fehu, Fehu, Fehu.. She slowly shaped an F onto the rune.
She set it down and then looked at the textbook and looked up the rune Uruz, it was shaped like a weird little n. Uruz meant Auroch or a wild ox. She said Intaglio, Uruz! Uruz!! She very carefully shaped the little n on the rune and smiled at her work. The next rune was Thurisaz, it was an oddly shaped D, she knew she would have trouble with this, she always had trouble pronocing this one! She took a breath and said Intaglio, Thurizas...Thurisaze...Thuriaze...Thurisaz. Intaglio Thurisaz. She steady created a odd D on the rune and took abother breath, it looked okay, it wasnt ruined, thankfully. The next rune was Ansuz, a downward facing F. An easy one. She said Intaglio Ansuz. She started to draw an F on the rune, and she drew one of the lines too long, that it went off the rune. She sighed and sent the rune in a diffrent pile than the finished and good runes and picked up another blank rune and said Intaglio Ansuz This time she did it a lot slower, and it came out great.

ooc: This final was supposed to have ended about 12 hours ago but I see that some of you are still posting so I'll keep it open for another 24 hours but then I will have to close it.

After he finished carving his Wunjo rune, Oakey got right on to the next one. Intaglio and the carving for "Hagalaz" was now on the little piece of wood. He carved each of the runes into their respective pieces, all the way up to "Othala" He took a look at each of the pieces once more making sure that their was no mistakes in any of the carvings. They all seemed to be perfect and looked great carved into his tiny pieces of the red wood he chose.

Now seated, Sierra looked at the piece of wood in her hands and tried to place where she'd seen it before. It looked like something they'd discussed in, maybe, History of Magic class during that wand wood lesson. She ruled out a few trees she knew the branch hadn't come from. Looking around the area, she tried to figure out the type of tree it'd come from. When her eyes fell on the tree near where she'd found the branch, she paused for a second, and the it hit her--Hawthorn.

She had the branch from a Hawthorn tree. Grinning to herself, she reached for her wand, ready to begin. "Intaglio!" she said, as she began to crave the symbol for Fehu. "Fehu, Fehu, Fehu," she said. Once the first rune was completed, she aimed her wand toward the wood again. "Intaglio!" she said. "Uruz, Uruz, Uruz." She formed the symbol for Uruz on the wood. Looking around and realizing she was still a little behind, she quickly aimed her wand toward the wood a third time. "Intaglio!" she said. "Thurisaz, Thurisaz, Thurisaz."

Three runes down, a ton to go.

Now for the bloody part of the task. Oakey looked once more to his self inflicted paper cut. Maybe he should have done it across the palm of his hand and not just his index finger for this next part anyways.

He never even considered the option of paint once. Oakey loved the Ancient Runes class and wanted his runes to be powerful. Under the picnic table Oakey felt a loose piece of wood that was was sharp enough. He snapped it off and laid the sharp end to one side of his palm, pressed hard and went about halfway down his palm until the pain kicked in. He tossed the sharp piece of wood to the ground and held his bleeding hand with the other as it throbbed with pain.

He looked down at his hand once it stopped throbbing, it was bleeding, and would need a some quick first aid once he was finished. For now, he would use this for his runes. Dabbing his good hands index finger on the blood of his other hand he transferred it over to the first of his runes, "Fehu". He concentrated hard on "Fehu" and it's meaning as he spread the blood around it. He continued this process of dabbing, spreading, and concentrating on the runes all the way to "Wunjo". The first Aett was done, now for the second one.

ooc: There is only 6 hours left of this final. So you don't have to wait for others to post, you may use the Spoiler or Text cut tags for each post. Just title them 'Post 6, Post 7 etc.' And I'll count them as separate posts.

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