Zhenya stood up from her seat, thinking it would have been nice if she and Laura could make matching friendship Brandings. But... perhaps it was a good thing that they weren't allowed that, or she could be expelled surely.

She went to the front desk and got a piece of wood and a gouge tool and took it back to her seat trying to think of what rune she would draw first. She didn't know, so she got out her alphabet and a piece of parchment and began practising on the paper before she put it on the wood.

Really? she was really fine? "Oh okay" Daichi still looked concerned at Beezus because the blush was still visible on her cheeks. Should he take her to the hospital wing or something?

But they were in class now and unless the girl was going to faint soon he would try to understand the lesson. Although he felt clueless as time went by. He had noticed Beezus shock when she too had get what the Professor had meant and he laughed quietly.

Looking back at her notes, Daichi leaned a little closer to read it when...
Did, did she just GLARED at him!? O_o what? why? how? no not how... "Can you move your arm a bit? i can't s-" he was about to say he couldn't see what she had written when she suddenly moved away!

WHAT HAD HE DONE?!

Frowning, the third year Slytherin sat back in his own seat. Why was Beezus ignoring him? He didn't get it.

With a perfectly confused expression he turned to look at Professor Jenkins and the tools he had ready for them to use. With one last look at Beezus he saw that she was not even looking at him! He huffed and got up from his seat and walked to the front to grab his tools.

Jotting down a few notes and underlining a thing here and there, Kurumi set her quill down and went to the front to grab a pieace of wood and was about to return to her seat when another small question crossed her mind. "Professor, is there a noticeable difference between the two methods? Using the incantation as opposed to doing it by hand I mean." Using magic as opposed to doing it by hand. Seemed like there might be something different.
*****
Finishing up her conversation with Professor Jenkins, Kurumi returned to her seat and set her piece of wood on the table. Now...which rune did she carve? Forget which method she was going to use, she needed to figure out which rune first. Opening up her textbook, Kurumi flipped through the pages looking for something that could help her when her eyes fell on a particular rune and suddenly the prefect realized that she didn't want to make a rune for herself...but for someone else. She would just figure out how to make them accept it later.

"Sowilo..." she whispered to herself as she read over its meaning. Yep. This would do.

Now...which method to use? She had used Intaglio during her second year and performed a few other carving methods before, but using a gorging tool was a little foreign to her. That pretty much decided it. The entire point of school was challenging yourself and trying out new things so that you could learn after all.

Using her quill first, Kurumi drew a very light drawing of the run on the piece of wood before picking up her tool and setting it against the wood. Against the grain, right?

Harvey listened as the professor spoke. He then when instructed got up and collected a piece of wood as well as the tool needed to carve the wood. He then went back to his seat and started to practice carving into the wood.. which was not as easy as he thought it was going to be. It was quite tough for a 12yr old boy like him to carve through the wood.. but he didnt give up and tried with all his might.. and he started to get the idea of how to carve the wood and after this it was a little easier to do the job as he continued carving his wood.

Ella listened carefully to the Professor and made a note in her notebook about the 'Intaglio' incantation. It did seem though that the Professor wanted them to try and actually carve the wood manually. Ella had never carved much of anything before but figured it was as good a time a as any to try it out. She headed up to the front and grabbed a piece of wood from the box and then picked up one of the gouge tools. She frowned at the tool, thinking it looked quite barbaric. She then turned on her heel and headed back to her desk.

Ella sat staring at the block of wood for a couple of minutes, almost willing it to form into some kind of ledgible runes. Nothing happened though and she accepted she'd have to use the tool and get to work. "Alright you wood, I'm going to carve you now. I'd like to apologize ahead of time for any mess I make." With one last apologetic look at the wood, Ella started to gouge into it, picking off little pieces and watched them fall to her desk.

Alyssa got up from where she was sitting and took a piece wood and a gouging tool and returned to her work desk. She first opened her textbook on runes and looked through the various ones until she found the one she was looking for. Ansuz. The rune of luck, good fortune, good fortune, immortality, divine impulse of human beings, and the invocation of divine power or help. It was also the rune of communications.

Alyssa studied the rune before she picked up the piece of wood and started using the gouging tool to gouge out a straight line. She gouged and removed bits of scraps and blew away the wood dust before examining the line that she had gouged out. Once that was completed she started working on the other two lines branching out from the main one. As she worked on carving the rune into the piece of wood, Alyssa concentrated on the shape of the rune itself and what it represented.

Once she completed first line that branched off slanting a little downward from the first straight line, she started working on carving out the second line to run parallel with the line she had just carved out. She gouged and brushed, picking off loose splinters before she decided that she had completed carving the rune. She sat back and examined her work and the rune Ansuz.

As the professor gave the go ahead to come get some wood and a tool, Lily got up and went up to the front of the room, grabbing a block of wood and a tool before returning to her seat. Once she had returned to her seat, Lily got a question. Raising her hand to get help from the professor, she waited until he got over to her seat before asking. "Um.. Does it matter which rune we decide to practice carving out? And is there any technique that you suggest we use while carving?" Lily figured she had to ask, since she didn't want to get in trouble and also had never carved anything before.

Nate went up to the desk to get a gouge tool. He looked at his piece of wood. He ddn't really know what the runes looked like. Bu then it hit him. He might as well just draw the rune he used for his homework. Uruz. He took out the gouge tool and drew a slanted line across the top for the top of course. He didn't remember what the rest looked like because he was thinking of what other runes looked like and his head got all jumbled with the runes. So he took out the ancient runes book he had and searched for uruz. It was on the fourth page of the book. So when he flipped to that page he saw what it looked like. He then turned back to the wood. Next he drew two lines at both ends of the slanted rune to make his finished product.

It was now time for them to start making a Rune, and Amelia was rather excited because she had never tried doing it before. She had no idea if she would do a good job or not, but she didn't care too much really. It just mattered that she attempt it. But what would she use to care it with? The tool might be a better idea for the reason the Professor mentioned, but she was better with a wand.

I think I'll try the tool today.

Getting up from her seat, she headed over to where the wood pieces and tools were kept. Picking up one of each, she headed back to her desk. Now she had to decide what Rune she wanted to make. It was a matter of her looking at the alphabet and determining which sounded the best to her.

Opening up her textbook, she scanned through the Runes. She wanted something that wasn't too hard to draw, but also not too easy. Finally, she settled on the first Rune of the alphabet: Fehu.

Now that she had what she was going to draw in mind, she picked up her quill and lightly traced the shape onto the piece of wood. Then she picked up her wood tool and started to carve it as carefully as possible. She wanted to do as neat a job as possible.

It all made sense. Crafting your own runes to have a personal connection so they worked better for you then a run of the mill set that risked being mass or faultly produced. And it seemed like that was the activity for the class, not too difficult though certainly challenging if one wasn't so sure of theirselves. However that was what the practice was for...right?

Gideon thought the incantation might have been mentioned in another class a few terms back but he couldn't remember it too vividly so while he listened, he copied it into his ntoebook just for future reference. The boy figuring he might as well follow the professor's preference and carve by hand. Less chance of messing up too badly. So when they were excused to gather the things they would need, the 5th year got up from his seat with his classmates and retrieved both wood and gouging tool before returning to his work desk.

When he was back seated, the Gryffindor opened up his textbook to where the runes were written out so he could see for certain their appearance. Gideon then went to work practicing carving various runes into the wood.

Ella decided that she wanted to make Sowilo, the sun rune. She liked that it meant energy and life. Ella considered herself to be both energetic and lively so she thought it suited her. Plus, the symbol itself looked a lot like a lightning bolt which was pretty awesome in her opinion. She continued to gouge at the wood, able to make the first line in the series of three she would make to create the symbol. "Er-not too bad I guess..." she said aloud to herself.

Minerva went and retrieved her wood and then took the gouging tool. Once Minerva got back to her seat she began to carve the piece of wood in her hand. She carved it into a shape and made sure the shavings were even an in the right direction.

A gouge tool? ...but why?! Sierra hated when they had to do things the Muggle way. Well, to be fair, she wasn't sure if using a gouse was the Muggle way, but it wasn't casting a spell using a wand. So it definitely wasn't a magical way. Then again, runes were magical, right? Soo... Hmm. She just shrugged to herself and left her desk. She made her way up front and selected a piece of wood and a gouge tool.

Back at her desk, Sierra began looking through her textbook to see which rune she'd like to carve. She finally decided on Fehu. Nobody could go wrong with the rune of wealth. She positioned her wood flat on her desk then picked up her gouge tool. Aiming it straight toward the wood, she pushed it in and began carving that funny looking F shape.

As instructed Oakey got up and hurried himself the to the front of the class and picked a gouge tool and a piece of gum wood. He sat down and turned his text book to the rune Tiwaz.

Tiwaz was an interesting rune. It had to do with Victory at what ever cost. Oakey wouldn't ever actually make this rune, it seemed to risky. This was only practice though so it should be fine.

This was exciting!

August had heard the Professor say that they were going to be making their own rune sets just a few minutes ago but seeing the wood and the gouging tools being set out for them to use made it all more real. He had never imagined they would make their own after being with that man last term. Professor Jenkins was definately turning out to be a good professor in Auggie's eyes.

Walking to the front of the room, the Gryffindor retrieved a large piece of the carving wood and a gouging tool from Professor Jenkin's desk and headed back to his own desk to work. Auggie had chosen the tool rather than his wand for two reasons: What the Professor had said about not adding more magic to the magical wood, and two so that he could be safer cutting and gouging the Muggle way, rather than with a spell.

First the Gryffindor worked to get the large piece of wood into 24 seperate pieces about an sqaure inch or more in size. After than he took one at a time and began making the symbols.

'Fehu...Uraz...Thurisaz...'

Having finished carving the very...small Sowilo in the corner to be chipped later and sent to her mother after class was dismissed. Kurumi set her chisel down and stretched her fingers. Working on such a small area and hunching her shoulders like such had been...hard. Her knuckles cracked, and Kurumi winced just a bit at the noise. The only noise worse was that of nails on the chalkboard. Cracking joints was just...unnatural sounding. *cringe*

Glancing back at her textbook...she still had 24 runes to carve PLUS leave space for a blank rune. So, the Gryffindor picked up her quill again and began to sketch out where each rune should be, allowing enough space between them so that she could cut them out later. Once she had the outline, Kurumi picked up her tool again and began to carve.

"Feoh....Feoh..." she whispered to herself as she dug into the wood. The nice thing about runes was that their shapes were precise. Not rounded. Perfect for carving. Which really, when you thought about it, was rather obvious since they had been carved first...so of course they would be easy to carve. Moving along, Kurumi managed to carve half of them before her hand felt like it was going to fall off. Sorry, professor, but it looked like the remainder was going to have to be done the magical way.

Kurumi set her tool down and picked up her wand this time. "Intaglio Jera...Jera...Jera..." And she continued down the list of runes until she was all the way to Othala and then set her want down and took a break. All her runes carved into her piece of food. Now...did they to cute these out into a specific shape?

Jordan began carving his piece of wood like he knew what he was doing. It felt normal to Jordan, surprisingly. Since nothing in this Magical World is really normal. At times he took little breaks to see if he was on task and not doing something else others were not doing.

Sierra carved the last line of the Fehu rune then sat back to look at her work. She wasn't the greatest in Runes, although, she'd of course never admit that. She peered a row over and noticed the Hollingberry the Hero had carved a full set. Of course she had. Why would Hollingberry do anything less? Blahhh.

Sierra looked back in her textbook for a second rune to carve. Hmm. How about...Kenaz? She could certainly use some knowledge here in an Ancient Runes class. Plus, the carving would be simple. Just two lines, and she'd be done. Sierra aimed her gouge tool toward the wood and started the carving.

Although the Professor had said that a person could hard or soft wood interchangably while making their rune sets, August wasn't sure how well he would have been able to do that with the small struggles he was having here and there with the wood they used now. It wasn't that it was too hard, it was just making the runes themselves and manuvering the gouging tool just so, that you didn't mess it up or destroy the little square itself.

After finishing the first eight runes, the Gryffindor took a small break to rub his wrist that had done most of the gouging work and suddenly wished he was apodexrious. It certainly would have been much easier. Now that his little breather was over, August set back to work carving the next eight runes in his set. As he carved each one he thought about the names of them and their properties.

'Hagalaz...Nauthiz...Isa...Jera...Eihwaz...Perthro ...Algiz...Sowlio...'

Walking back with his gouging tools, Daichi noticed that Beezus was still not looking at him. He really wondered why she suddenly started to ignore him but maybe should ask her after class. For now , he needed to concentrate on making his rune stones.

The Slytherin sat back down and placed the piece of wood in front of him. Opening his textbook, Daichi's flipped the pages until he found the illustrations of the runes. His dark brown eyes immediately fell on the Ansuz rune. The rune he had used in the previous lesson and it was a pretty simple F looking shape.

He began to carve the first straight line in the piece of wood. The tools were scraping with an irritating sound but Daichi was too focused to notice. His tongue stuck out a little bit in his concentration and when the vertical line was done he smiled. Blowing the wood snippers away, he tried to smoothen the surface with his hand and began to carve in the second line at the top. Making sure to get an oblique angle going downwards. When he was done with that he proceeded to do the same thing a little under the first line to make the F shape.

When he was done, Daichi smiled at his result and looked proudly. This wasn't so hard!

He placed his gouging tools down and looked back at his textbook for the second rune. Kenaz was simple as well! He started to carve the < shape in the wood with the use of his tool. The Slytherin knew it would be going faster if he used magic but he didn't trust himself. Because he didn't want to blow the piece of wood up if he tried, and he was sure he would. So instead he proceeded to use the muggle way.

The end result was perfectly fine in his eyes as he looked at his second carved rune.

Minerva worked hard on her carvings. She moved them around to see if she had done them correctly checking her book. It wasn't the best, but it worked she felt. She made a few more changes and then looked at them and decided that she couldn't get them any better.
Runes:

Ella put the finishing touches on her sowilo rune and blew off the excess wood shavings. She looked at her carving, satisfied with her work. Unfortunately, she had been working on this rune for quite some time and noticed that others had been able to carve several. She frowned, hoping that her carving was okay. Maybe she would be able to start another one if there was time.

Two down , many to go. Daichi sighed as he looked back at his text book and saw how many runes he still had to carve. At first he thought it would be an easy and fast process but only the first two rune stones took him atleast 10 minutes.

Deciding to carve the rune Gebo which was an X , Daichi used his gouging tools and to carve the first line. Blowing away the wood he did the other line of the X shaped rune and when he was done he flipped through the pages for another rune.

Fehu looked like the rune Ansuz but had an upside down stroke F ... or however one would call it. Daichi began to carve the shape in the piece of wood again using his gouging tools while biting his lower lip in concentration. He was really getting good at this and Daichi wondered if he finally found something he was good at. Except for Quidditch, mweh he still felt bad not having tried out this term.

After carving in the runes: Uruz, Thursiaz, Raidho and Wunjo as well , the Slytherin placed his gouging tools down and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He eyed his piece of wood with the weird rune symbols on it and nodded his head. The first aett was done~

Now for the second Aett. Daichi placed his gouging tools back on the wood and began to carve in the Isa symbol. It took him only a minute to carve the l line.

Sowilo followed as he placed the gouging tools beside the Isa rune and carved an S shape in it.

Alyssa noticed the other students working on more than one rune, so she decided that since she was waiting for the Professor to continue with the lesson, that she would continue making more runes. She walked up to the front and picked up another 6 smaller pieces of wood.

She then returned to her desk and reviewed her Runes textbook before picking on Fehu, Raidho, Kenaz, Mannaz, Lagaz and Ingwaz. She picked Fehu because the rune was known to provide success, advancement in career, a turnabout in luck for those in difficulty, Raidho was the rune that symbolized the journey to a place of power, the realms of the dead, Kenaz can be used to bring strength to an individual, or for the banishment of dark forces of any kind, Mannaz was the rune used in mediation, to increase dreaming, or to enhance the truth of dreams. It can be used in conjuction with other runes to personalize matters or magic for or on a particular individual, Laguz was the rune of intuition and imagination, Ingwaz could be used to establish dedication and loyalty among friends.

She picked up the first piece of wood and started gouging the rune Fehu. It was almost similar to that of the first rune she had carved Ansuz, only Fehu's branching lines slanted upwards. As she gouged the lines, Alyssa concentrated on what the rune meant and how it was used. Once she had completed gouging out the lines, she blew off the dust and scraped off the wood splinters. She placed the rune Fehu aside and started working on the next Rune, Raidho. The rune was shaped like a capital R but instead of its curves, its lines would be more angled. Alyssa first gouged out its vertical line, starting from the top and gouging downwards. Then she finished off the rune by gouging out the remaining three lines. As she gouged and cleared the dust, she concentrated on what the rune meant and what it was to be used for. Raidho was now complete.

Kenaz too was an easy one to gouge. It looked like a V only it faced sideways. As she gouged out the first slanting line angling upwards, she concentrated on the meaning of the rune. Then she blew off the dust before gouging out the second line, this time angling downwards. Once she was done, she put the finished rune aside.

Now for Mannaz. This Rune like a capital M only there were two additional lines. So it basically looked like two vertical lines with a small X that fit in between the two lines. Alyssa first gouged out the two vertical lines, making sure that they ran parallel to each other a distance apart from each other. Then she started working on the small X. As she gouged she looked around to make sure that she still had time to finish the last two Runes. Blowing off the dust from the Mannaz rune, she placed it aside before picking up the next piece of wood.

Laguz looked up an upward hook, so Alyssa first gouged out a straight vertical line. Once she was done, she gouged out a small short line starting from the top of the vertical line and slanted it an angle. Again like the rest of the runes, she concentrated on what the rune meant and what it was used for. Laguz was finished. Alyssa smiled knowing that she would have time to finish carving the last rune, Ingwaz.

The rune Ingwaz looked like a diamond, and that was the way Alyssa carved it. Four lines joined to each other. As she slowly gouged the lines making sure that they were joined perfectly and looked like a diamond. Once she was done, she placed all the runes that she had made together. Fehu, Raidho, Kenaz, Mannaz, Lagaz and Ingwaz.

Ok so now that the next section of eight runes had been gouged out and set aside, Auggie needed to work on the last eight. He had been going at a good pace and had hoped he would get a chance to finish them all before the lesson was over. Time seemed to be on his side as he reached for the gouging tool again and scooted each remaining small piece of gum wood infront of himself to carve the rune in it, whispering it's name in the process.

'Tiwaz...Berkano...Ehwaz...Mannaz...Laguz...Ingwaz ...Dagaz...Othala.'

He had done it, a finished set after a half-lesson's time was up. The lion was pretty proud of himself as he looked down at his little runes. He couldn't wait to use them evientually.