Okay. Now that the waiting portion was over they could get down to business. She watched Kurumi place her Fire Crab on the ground then stepped back when she was instructed to.

Once the little guy started moving around she saw the sense in this. Why were creatures so odd? Hadn't they ever heard of simply calling. Stick to verbals people. She perked up when the girl said Kevin was coming . Goooood. She missed her so much. When she saw her she'd have to give her extra love for the wasted hours.

...

Something was wiggling in the pocket of her robe.

Lex began squirming as whatever it was made it's way around. What the? Sticking her hand inside she froze instantly. Slowly she removed her hand and took off the robe, tossing it to the ground. Ahem. "Kevin." She tried keeping her voice even as she watched a lump moving around her robe. "Kevin darling." Tight smile. Seconds later the Fire Crab emerged but instead of coming to reconcile for her bad behaviour she walked over to Kurumi's.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Oh no she didn't.

Ira grinned. It seemed like Nerida preferred female crabbies. Which was good, seeing that they had to do all sorts of things to the crabs. She looked up and listened.. Heh, failed prank by brothers! Whatever it had been, it was bound to be fun, but, maybe not too fun seeing that these were fire crabs that they were talking about.

So Nerida liked Amber's name. Good. Ira was still trying to lightly poke the crab from behind when it was crawling around on the ground. And that was when she heard Nerida's choice. Phoenix. Oh yes, that went well with her own Amber. Amber and Phoenix. Phoenix & Amber. Yep, it was good. "Phoenix and Amber do sound good together!" Ira smiled, wide, looking at her friend. "Now they are sister crabs! Yep!"

And now, moving on to the next job. Feeding the crabs. "I think they eat.. worms I guess. Don't all animals eat worms?" Ira half asked, half told the girl besides her, "And maybe some plants too.. some specific type." Ira said, thinking. Then she continued, "Why don't we do one thing.. Lets place some worms and some leaves and some fruit or something in front of them.." she said, pointing to the two crabs on the ground, "Let Amber and Phoenix decide what they like."

STOMP STOMP
FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMES
STOMP STOMP
FLAAAAAAAAAAMES

The stomping was definitely becoming more persistent and perhaps even eager when Kevin finally made her appearance. In fact, the flames became much MUCH larger and Kurumi tugged on Alexa's robes while taking another rather large step back herself. "We should...leave them alone...for a little..." Kurumi suggested. As fascinating as this was...it was also insanely awkward. She could still feel the heat a little on the back of her neck and as long as there was fire shooting out she really did not want to get anywhere near the two fire crabs.

With a quick flick of her wand, Kurumi returned her fire crab cleaning supplies to where they belonged and glanced idly around the place before the heat from the fire seemed to go away. Slowly, Kurumi peeked over her shoulder and saw that the two fire crabs were not near each other, but certainly were out in the open.

"We better grab them before they get away," Kurumi whispered to her fellow lioness before scurrying over and picking up Akeboshi.

Lex didn't know what to make of this. She was worried sick about the little one and there she went paying more attention to some stupid boy Fire Crab instead of her...the one who fed her and bathed her--nevermind the fact that she'd lost her because now it didn't even seem like she was really lost, just all snug in her pocket. Mm.

Not cool Kevin, not cool at all. She had half a mind to just stomp her for what she did but then...she guessed she still loved her, having grown all attached to her and everything so she wouldn't be able to bring herself to.

Leave them alone?! Now why would she do that?!

Kevin obviously proved that she wasn't responsible enough to be left alone. Still, the flames were getting pretty out of control. She followed the perfects lead and stepped back cautiously. When the fire finally ended she didn't hesitate to grab her before she had a chance to climb into someone else's pocket. After making sure she was secured in her hand she turned to Kurumi with a wide smile. "It actually work!!! That was a great idea!" And now she had Kevin back, even though she was a little upset at he for running away in the first place. "You need any help with yours?" You know...since you totally helped me out with mine...

With gender determination down and giving his charge a name, Gideon figured it was time to move onto perhaps better and more important things. Like the care and cleaning and all around well-being of the creature before him. Now all he had to decide what task he was to do first.

Cleaning or feeding...feeding or cleaning?

The ideas were mulled over in his mind before he realized feeding was probably best done first so any cleaning wasn't undone by a messy eater. WHich seeing as he never met the fire crab...Calliope, really before, Gideon couldn't be sure she wasn't. Seeing as the easy part was done, the prefect went in search for the food needed for the creature. When he had found it, he placed it in the spot set aside for it in the stall.

"There...hope yer hungry." If not, the feeding of Calliope would be senseless but oh well. It wasn't as if Gideon had any clue as to when she and the rest were last fed. He did watch and wait to see if the firecrab responded...inching it...her way towards the food. When finally she appeared to be eaten all was well and he could take her distraction as time to gather up accutrements for what he figured on doing next.

Eliza flipped through her notes, trying to find the right page. Feeding…bathing…habitat…treating, aha! She read the instructions carefully, wanting to make sure she helped poor little Cilla in the best way possible. “It looks like we’ve got to get some sunshine on you, little one!” She read on in her notes and explained them to the crab. “It says here that if you have a soft spot on your shell, or discoloration - you need some sun, or a calcium enriched bone. What do you think about that, hmm?” She smiled down towards her crab and she tucked her notes away. “Well first thing’s first. Time to pick you up again. I know it’s probably not your favorite.” It looked like some of the other crabs weren’t being nearly as passive as her, so she was counting her lucky stars that she had been paired with Cilla that first day.

As she carried Cilla to a ray of sun that was shining into the barn, she felt a quick burst of heat in front of them. She peeked over her crab and saw a whisp of smoke. So she's not the perfect little angel I thought? “Cilla! Did you just shoot flames at me? Lucky you were turned around, you little rascal!” She sat her down in the sunlight and took a step back. “I know you’re tired of being handled, but it’s for your own good.” She hoped the crab would sit in the sun for a few minutes while she went to find the calcium chews.

Patting her fire crab on top of his head a few times, Kurumi glanced at Alexa when she grabbed her own fire crab. Oh good. At least that helped with some of the awkward that Kurumi now felt over the entire situation. They had accomplished the task they had set out to do and operation Find Kevin had been a success. Kurumi grabbed a wash cloth and re-polished a few of her fire crab's jewels that had become a little dirty and used a bristle brush to removed some of the dirt that had fallen into the cracks.

There. Nice and clean again.

"Hmm? Oh, not today," Kurumi said with a small smile. "I'm just glad we found Kevin. We should probably put these two back in their cages before something else happens." Because it was already getting sort of late in the afternoon and Kurumi had NEWT studies to attend to and a tutoring session with Lewis later as well.

"Phoenix and Amber it is!" The two names went very well indeed. Sister crabs it was nice knowing that her crab wouldn't be all alone...And that she would have a friend to do this things with it made things funner and made her feel better. "Sister crabs!" Now it was time to feed the crabs. She looked around for some worms maybe...Of course they probably were not going to be sticking out of the ground wiggling and having a sign pointed at them worms right here."I'll go see if I can find any leaves and worms!"

She bent down onto her knees and began digging into the ground.She felt something trickle against her finger, she cringed and jumped up real fast...After realizing it was just a worm she picked it up getting a bit grossed out she found a container to drop it in. She continued digging through the dirt until she found another, she did the same with the second. Once she had collected six worms, what she thought was enough she walked back over to Amber and Phoenix and Ira. "I have the worms.I'll be right back with some leaves!"

She found some leaves on the floor and decided to pick up a few. She walked back over to Ira and help them out and said "All we need is the fruit now!"

Bucket...check.

Brush...check.

Cleaning and polishing cloths...check and double check.

After gathering all the supplies he remembered from class as needed for cleaning a firecrab, Gideon made his way back to the right stall, the items within the bucket in his hand. He eased open the stall door, careful of his surroundings and trying to be sure he knew where his charge was while it was open and he entered back into the area. Wait...she wasn't by the desk of food he had left out. Where was she? The prefect quickly closed the door to keep the erant firecrab from escaping unnoticed and looked around for any signs of the creature. He finally spotted her half-beneath some of the bedding that had been laid out in her cage.

"No hiding there, Calliope." Gideon surely didn't want to have to chase after the fire crab if it got out, or worse, ask for help from Professor Newlin if she got lost. He gingerly eased her back out, nearly freezing in place as he thought she was going to spew some of her fire. When nothing happened the seventh year breathed a sigh of relief. "Time for yer bath," he mused, slipping out his wand and filling up the bucket with a silent spell before easing the firecrab into it.

Minerva walked into the Fire Crab Sanctuary, she felt bad she hadn't been there sooner, but with everything going on she had been a bit overwhelmed, but that was not the fault of the poor fire crabs. Minerva looked around until she found one that didn't have a student yet. Leaning down she smiled at the fire crab, but stayed back so it couldn't spark at her. The minute the little creature saw her it started to turn to spark. Well he or maybe she was going to be a handful, now wasn't it.

Minerva pulled out the to do list to see what she needed to do first. Looking back at the cage she decided it needed a name. Yes, a name was needed. How was it that they were told to figure out if the fire crab was a girl or boy. She tried to think and then looked back into the cage, something to do with the tail. Looking at the tail Minerva made the mental note that it was longer and wider, so that meant it was a male.

Smiling Minerva tried to think of a good name. Looking at the crab and trying to think. Minerva then thought of something.. "Yes.. I think that could work..I think that would be a good name for you. You will be Tag for the rest of the time." She then went and got a card to write on and stick to the cage.

The first year riffled through the storage cabinet in search of what she needed. The professor had said anything they required to treat their crabs would be in there, but she wasn’t really sure what anything would look like. Calcium chews… She picked up bottles and tins, reading the labels and setting them all back down. She was about to give up, thinking they’d all been used, when she saw a tub labeled Calcium Enriched on the sticker. “Aha!” she exclaimed to herself as she popped open the tub. The little chew bones were powdery and smelled sort of strange, but she picked two up anyway.

She took the bones back to her crab, Cilla, was still soaking up some sun. “Here you go Cilla,” she said as she placed a chew in front of the crab. I’d never think of crabs chewing on bone treats…but okay. She wondered how someone had discovered that they could get crabs to do that. It sure beats trying to get them to swallow pills or take shots though, definitely. The crab seemed mildly interested in the bone, so she thought the powder might have been something to make it smell good to the crab. Who knows?

She walked back to the stall that Cilla had been in and tossed the other bone into it. She can munch on that later, she thought. She wiped her hands on the underside of her robe and went back to Cilla. Better make sure she doesn’t choke on it or anything.

"Softy! Come here Softy!" Alex exclaimed as he entered the sanctuary. To his surprise, the fire crab actually ran right up to him. Huh, he hadn't expected that to actually work! He figured it was because the fire crab had figured out that Alex = food. Yummy food at that, which was exactly what he had brought.

"Yeah, I know, you like me only for my food," he chuckled as he pulled out the strawberries he'd brought him. Softy looked up at him expectedly, and Alex dropped the berries in his pen. As the crab gobbled them up, Alex examined the small crack in his shell that he'd repaired last time--no sign of a crack anymore! In fact, he almost forgot where it had been. That antidote stuff had worked perfectly!

He waited for the crab to finish up his snack, because after that, he was going to be getting a bath. Dun dun DUN.

Once the Minerva came up with her fire crabs name she decided that she needed to look at what to do next. As she was going to look to see what to do she looked at Tag, "Well you don't have anything in your cage. I bet the next thing I need to do is feed you. Are you hungry?" Now what did fire crabs eat.. This she wasn't to sure, looking around she found the list of directions. Hmm worms, was that what those worms were for that Professor Newlin had in class before Peeves dumped them over everything.

Minerva went and found a place she could dig in the ground. She moved the soil and dug a bit not really finding anything she frowned. What if she couldn't find any worms. That would be good, she needed to find worms for her new friend. Moving to a different area Minerva decided to try and dig again. She was getting dirty from the digging, but didn't care. Yes, she said in her head as she came across a few worms. Picking them up she moved back to the cage.

Of this was awkward....Looking at the worms, could she really set them down to be eaten. She was not one to ever kill anything, so how could she let living worms get eaten by a fire crab. Trying to push it out of her mind she had to think of it as the way of life, she ate meat, but she never thought of it living, so this is how she had to think for them. It was just harder because the worms were moving in her hand. Opening the cage she set the worms in quickly and turned away not wanting to see anymore. She would wait until they were gone before she moved to the next step.

Hannah had finished scrubbing her crab with the brush. Benjamin was looking good with her jewels gleaming. her little fire crab was cleaning up pretty good. She decided that she would give him a massage next. Man it must be nice to be a fire crab. Benji was getting the royal treatment today. Hannah grabbed a washcloth and got it wet. She gently massaged the crab all over. She started with the tail. "Now Benjamin... don't get excited and burn me ok?" She only used his whole name when she meant business so Benji would know not to mess with her.

She moved the washcloth over the crabs little legs and rubbed, rubbed, rubbed. Then she moved to underneath his shell. She spent the most time here because she could just tell by Benji's face that he was really enjoying it. She was such a good crab mommy. She continued to massage him longer than she would have normally just because she was in a nice and giving mood.

She noticed that the more that she massaged him the more flakes there were. At first she started to panic, but then she remebered that it was normal. She was just getting rid of the old nasty stuff so he could show off his new and shiny skin and shell. She rinsed him off really quick to get all of the excess flakes off.

Ethan was rather annoyed with himself for putting off this assignment.. though it was probably the fact that they had all term to complete it coupled with the amount of studying he had to do for OWLs that could be blamed for his procrastination. At any rate, he knew he had very little time to complete it so he was making the effort now before he would run out of time.

Walking down through the grounds, the Ravenclaw slowed as he neared the fire crab sanctuary. Making his way inside, he noticed plenty of students there and most of the stalls were already claimed. It might be a little tough finding one he could tend to.. and it most likely wouldn't be the same one he named and cared for in class.

As he walked through the building in search of an unclaimed fire crab, he spotted Minerva up ahead in one of the stalls. Peeking his head in, the boy said, "Hi, Min.." He gave her a smile and raised his hand in a casual wave before heading on his way. He figured she had her own work to do as well and didn't want to distract her too much.

Oh, there was an available one! Ethan walked into the stall, taking in a cursory glance. Oh.. this was actually pretty cool.. just what he thought a rainforest would look like.. just in an enclosed space. He spotted the little fire crab in the corner who seemed to be watching him curiously. Smiling tentatively, the boy cautiously walked over. Right.. he had to figure out the gender by looking at the tail. He bent down, not too close to it for thinking it might shoot flames, and peered at the tail. Short and stubby meant female..

"Okay, little one.. I guess you need a name.." he said, getting to his feet and slowly walking around the front of her to get a good look. Eh.. he was bad at picking names.. but thought about naming her after his little cousin.. or at least giving her her nickname as a moniker. "What do you think.. Clo?" he said to the little fire crab as he gave a shrug. Worked for him..

Minerva had her head down and her hands up hiding her eyes from the crab eating the worms. This would be the worse part of it all and she didn't want to watch. She just hoped it would be over quickly. She knew it was silly, it was just worms, but still they were living creatures and she just handed them their death. Hearing a voice made her look up, and a smile crossed her face, "Hey Ethan." She was about to say something else, but he was gone already. Well he probably had so much going on with doing these assignments as well as OWLS. Yikes... OWLS something she didn't want to think about for herself next term.

Turning back to her little fire crab she noticed the worms were gone.. Good that was quick and almost painless. She couldn't say completely painless, because she didn't know if the worms felt the pain or not. Now for the next step. Bathing the little guy. Thinking about the last time she bathed a fire crab she couldn't help but smile. That was when she worked with Ethan for the first time. That was a very fun day. Going off and getting a bucket for her water, Minerva came near the cage again and set the bucket in down on the ground.

Pulling her wand "Aguamenti" the water began to pour into the bucket. Once she had enough water she stopped the flow and looked into the cage. "Now Tag, we are not going to burn anyone on the way to the bucket, right?" Opening the cage door, Minerva reached in and took the fire crab from the front area so that she would not be burned. As she predicted the little crab started to spark and she quickly placed it's backside into the bucket. Letting him soak so that his crust and crud could soften, Minerva got ready to start cleaning and checking Tag.

After Cilla had finished off the rest of her calcium chew, Eliza checked around to see if she had left any crumbs. Don't want to make a mess in here, she thought. She knelt down to talk to Cilla. "Always leave a place better than it was when you got there, Cilla." She rolled her eyes at herself. Crabs weren't likely to be doing much housekeeping, but she'd gotten used to talking to Cilla regardless.

She stood back up and stretched her arms into the air. She was getting worn out from all of this fire crab duty. Then the thought came to her. Maybe Cilla is tired of hanging around here too. Maybe she'd like a walk? But how would I get her to go the right way? I don't see any leashes for crabs or anything... She looked down at Cilla and then to a plant with fruit nearby. Ah, the old hang a carrot in front of her idea. That should work. She plucked the fruit from the plant and waved it in front of Cilla.

"Cilla, if you want to go on a walk with me, I will give this to you in your stall, okay?" Cilla of course did not really understand, but the crab reached its claws forward to try to grab the fruit. Ta-da! she thought. She held the fruit just out of reached and walked around the stall backwards so that Cilla would follow. She checked behind her several times to make sure that she wouldn't back into anyone.

After they had traversed the barn and woven in and out between trees and landscaping, she decided Cilla had probably had enough exercise. She led the crab, fruit in hand, back into the stall where she had already stashed an extra calcium chew for her. She's going to be one spoiled crab. That's for sure. She backed all the way in and closed the stall door behind them to make sure Cilla wouldn't get out again.

"Good job, Cilla. You were a very good walking partner." She dropped the fruit for the crab and waved as she went for the door. "You be good now. It was nice seeing you again and I hope your soft spot clears up soon." And with that, she shut the door and left her label on it so that Professor Newlin would know whose crab Cilla was.

Quote:

Eliza Dawnsel
First Year - Ravenclaw
Crab: Female, Cilla

Minerva had been letting Tag soak for a few minutes, maybe even a little longer. The little guy was looking extra dirty and extra sparky so she wasn't taking any chances of being burned. Watching him she smiled, he seemed to like his little bath. Maybe his sparking at the beginning warmed the water to the point it was like a hot tub for the crab and he was just relaxing.

After a few more moments Minerva reached in picking up Tag just a little out of the water, so if he would dry enough while she was working he still wouldn't burn her. Using her fingers she moved them around the crab scrubbing his shell to get the dirt and grime off of him. As she moved around she stopped and picked him up further to check his shell. Something didn't feel right, "awww poor thing. I think you have a crack in your shell. We will have to get this taken care of." Once she knew he had one crack she completed scrubbing the shell with her fingers.

Laura walked into the Fire Crab Sanctuary, she wasn't sure if she could do this right but she was going to try and she hoped that the Professor who she was sure didn't like her, would realise that she had tried to do her best and worked hard to do this.

Laura looked around and picked one of the Fire Crab that she was sure would behave the most, she didn't like creatures that were rude and hard to control, she wanted one that would do what it was told, she looked at the Fire Crab and smiled as she saw that the tale was smaller than some of the others which meant that it was a female, that was good normally they were the well behaved one.

Laura suddenly realised that she would have the give the Fire Crab a name, now that was going to be hard, she rattled her brain and tried to think of something but it was hard, different names came into her head until she had one she liked. "I think we will call you Flame." Laura smiled as she looked at the Fire Crab in the cage which seemed to be behaving at the minute.

Laura grabbed hold of a card and wrote on it before sticking it to the top of the cage where the Fire Crab couldn't destroy it.

The Care of Magical Creatures final exam. Sierra knew what that meant--school was coming to a close for yet another year! That just might be the only reason Sierra was excited to take a final exam. Other than that, dealing with a stinky fire crab was about the last thing on her 'to do' list for the day. Of course she'd waited until the last minute, too. This was true to her fashion, because she seemed to do this with all her homework assignments. Why should a final exam be any different?

Approaching a fire crab which didn't look to be claimed by someone else, Sierra just stared at it. So what now? Lots of things, according to the list she'd copied down from the bulletin board, but where should she start? Glancing over, she noticed Laura fixing a label to the fire crab's cage. Looked like a good start to Sierra. She ripped a piece of parchment off and on it wrote:

Heh. Seemed like a good name for a fire crab, especially considering she hadn't determined its gender yet.

Laura looked around and smiled as she saw Sierra, well this was weird was she going to yell at her or anything. "Hi Sierra." Laura smiled at the older girl, she couldn't believe how quick this term had gone by but at the minute she had to feed this creature.

Laura looked carefully at the list of food that the Fire Crab liked and was good for it, once she was sure she had something first she started to spoon feed the Fire Crab and it seemed very hungry. "Sierra I think my crab hasn't eaten in ages." Laura giggled as she looked at the older girl and then she stopped when she saw the Fire Crab had moved away from the food. "Had enough." Laura smiled at the crab and then ducked thinking the Fire Crab was attacking when it came to the front of the cage, she wasn't looking forwards to the next part which was to wash it.

She rinsed Benjamin a bit more and was just about to take him out of the bucket and put him back into his little crabby crate when she noticed that Benji had some discoloration on his jewels. What? How did she miss that? He was sparkling beautifully earlier. Ugh! What was she going to do about this? She couldn't have her crab going around with his jewels not in tip top condition. "Benjamin." she scolded as if it were the crabs fault.

She had to think. What could she do to fix the problem? Aha! She could lay her little Benji out in the sun and let him get some sun. How long would that take though? Benji had been pretty cool, but Hannah was not all about taking ten years of her life to fix a problem. Benji was beginning to become clingy and Hannah wanted no parts of a clingy crab.

There had to be an easier way. She knew that there had to be another way she just had to think of a better idea. Then it hit her. Calcium Enriched Bones. Surely the professor would have some of them on hand around here somewhere. She picked up the crab and went on a little adventure to find him some bones.

Having identified and named the fire crab, Ethan thought it might be best to bathe her. He did have previous experience with that in class, so he figured that was the next best step.. and then maybe feed her when he was finished? Possibly.. he'd see how everything went first.

From what he remembered, he would have to fill up a bucket with water first to extinguish any flames the little creature might emit. Looking around the stall, Ethan did not see any buckets.. or any supplies of that sort, really.. so he figured they must be in that cabinet he noticed near the back of the building. Taking a few moments to retrieve the necessary bathing supplies, Ethan returned to the stall, noticing that Clo was still in the same corner. Shy little thing, he thought.. chuckling at how unlike her namesake she was.

The boy set the bucket and brush on the ground and pulled out his wand. Pointing it at the bucket, he cast Aguamenti and watched it fill up with water. After pulling on his dragonhide gloves taken from inside his bag, he slowly approached the fire crab, thinking that if she was as shy as he thought, a gentle approach might be best. "Alright, little Clo," he said in a quiet voice as he bent down in front of her and gently put his hands on either side of her shell. "Time for a bath.." No flames yet.. he carefully picked her up and carried her over to the bucket. Setting her down into the water, Ethan noticed Clo squirm a little and attempt to shoot a flame which was quickly extinguished. Oh right.. water wasn't warm enough. He had forgotten that bit from class.. He waited till the heat of her body warmed the water and she got used to the temperature before continuing.

Oh, great. She'd attracted a Puffer...

"Hey, Laura," Sierra said, not exactly sure what to say next. How do you be friendly to a Puffer? Could one ever live up to their standards?!

Sierra shrugged. "I could really care less about mine. I'm just here to get credit for my final exam," she said. The truth shall set you free, hmm? She guessed she should feed hers, too. After all, she was pretty much here to feed it and bathe it, and what should logically come first? A good meal.

"This one's called Scorcher," she randomly said, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a sealed jar. She opened it to reveal a container full of worms. "Picked these on my way over." She moved aside the top to the fire crabs cage and began feeding Scorcher the worms that she'd brought along.

Laura looked at Sierra, she didn't know what to say to Sierra because the older girl was always mean to Hufflepuffs, so she had no idea what Sierre would say next. "I don't really care about mine, I' just here to get the credit for my final exam as well." Laura smiled, so they did have at least one thing in common.

Laura listened to Sierra talk about Scorcher and how she had got some worms for her Fire Crab. "That is awesome Sierra." Laura was wondering why she hadn't thought about that but onto the next thing, Laura would have to Bathe the fire crab.

Laura grabbed hold of the bucket that was next to her and started to full it up. "This is awesome!" Fire and water wasn't suppost to mix right so what if Flame didn't enjoy her bath, she then grabbed hold of the fire crab and put it into the water and she started to lightly rub the shell with her fingertips to feeling for any soft spots or cracks, she would finish washing the creature first beforing patching up any injury Flame might have.