Sarah then took out her washcloth which was now dry. She cast argumenti on it to wet it. She squeezed out the excess liquid and began to massage the shell. She massaged the shell in a spiral movement/There were flakes coming off yet Sarah tried to ignore them. It was normal. She then moved onto the legs. As she cleaned it she wondred how there was still soil even though she had cleaned it before. One leg done, she moved onto the next one. Soon all the legs were done.

Now she had to do the under part of Cannon - should she turn him over? She did not know they decided against it, instead she reached under and began to massage. He didn't seem to mind - thankfully and soon that too was cleaned. The tail was cleaned next, that too had surprisingly soil on it.

There was still flakes on it, loose so Sarah took out her wand and began to wash off all the flakes.

TLC? What the heck is that? Were those those leafy green things surrounding steamed versions of himself and served on a plate? There was that panic that started to go through the firecrab as it tried to click its pincers again and swished its longish tail, warding pale-face off, but although this one wasn’t half as noisy as the other gorilla from class, he was just as dense.

Vickers cradled the firecrab in his arm as he set about to prepare the bathing bucket. It was wagging its tail? Was that something like how dogs and crups wag their tails? In any case this put the Ravenclaw in a pretty good mood, flicking the bucket with his wand as he filled it up with water.

Now she was nearing the end of the bathing session. She took out her wand and used arguementi from the finally rinse. Then she checked once more for more things that needed to be fixed. There was the crack, yet she looked for more. No there were no more so she began to feel for softeness -no there was none either nor any discoloration on the jewels. That was like reallynice, less work for the healer to do.

Satified, she picked Cannon up and put him back in his cage for now. First she needed to rinse out suppliers before she plays healer. She covered him with the dark cloth and said to work. She emptied the bucket with tergeo and then cleaned it with scourigfy. She then cleaned the brush and cloth with scourigfy, that was after using the hot air charm to dry the cloth. She was done with the cleaning and left everything clean as well.

Scorcher was still a little wet, but according to the directions, that's how Sierra was supposed to leave him. He was already in his cage, though. She'd put it there due to those soft spots she'd found on the shell. Apparently, the light was really good for them and gave them lots of calcium. It was looking a little discolored, too, but according to her notes, the light should solve that, too.

With that done, she supposed all she had left to do was just cover the cage and let the crab be. It'd had a bath, been all patched up, and was now sunbathing, so why shouldn't it be happy? She'd take a nap if she were Scorcher. Sierra reached for the cover, the same one that had been on the cage earlier, and draped it over the cage.

Now, to clean up this mess...

Ira looked on amused at the expression that crossed her friend's face when she said the word bugs. Yep, because it would be her reaction too. Bugs were nasty.

But without saying anything, she got up, and went to the cabinet again, bringing some more worms, seeing how both their crabs had almost devoured the gross stuff. Bringing it, she set it down and opened the can and kept it in front of the crabs, waiting for them to devour this too.

Looking towards Nerida, she nodded. "Yeah, so first bath and then wounds." Though she was a little bit doubtful as to whose wounds they had to heal.. the sister crabbies' or their own? Anyways, given the task, and they had to complete it. "I'll be back in a minute.." Saying so, Ira got up again and went to the cabinet, looking for all the items needed for bathing Phoenix and Amber. Thinking for a moment, she took a bucket, and a wipe cloth, and also some soap and oil. Oooh! The crabs were really being pampered!

"So.. bathing time!" Ira said excitedly, extending her hands forward to gently pick up her crab, and asked Nerida to do the same. By casting Aguamenti, she half filled the bucket with water, and proceeded to wipe the crab clean.

Right. The mess she'd made...

Not necessarily a mess, but she did need to clean off and put away all the tools she'd used to do the cleaning and maintenance. She looked back at the cage, checking to make sure she'd done everything she was supposed to do. The main thing she wanted to do was make sure she'd put the lid back on the cage. She didn't even want to think about what would happen if the crab she was working on got loose.

She'd suddenly switch name tags and pretend like it was Laura's crab who was running wild and free. Heh.

Sierra picked up he brush she'd used, aimed her wand toward it, and said, "Aguamenti!" A stream of water shot toward the brush and rinsed it free of suds. Sierra then applied a quick drying charm and dried the excess water off the brush. With that done, she put away right back where she'd found it.

With everything she'd used rinsed out and put away, Sierra collected all the items that belonged to her. When she was done, she gave Scorcher one last parting glance and then left the sanctuary.

And now it was time to rinse..

Ethan gently pulled Clo out of the bucket of dirty water and set her on the ground next to him. Pulling out his wand again, he vanished the old water in the bucket, then picked up the fire crab and set her back into the bucket. Casting Aguamenti over her to rinse her, the fire crab tried shooting out a couple flames which were quickly extinguished by the running water. "Sorry, Clo.." he said with a chuckle, now casting the wand aside once he had enough water. "I know you don't like it so much, but you need to be rinsed.."

Once the bucket had clean water and the boy felt the fire crab was sufficiently rinsed, Ethan began inspecting the shell for irregularities. The crack was still there of course.. and he found several of the jewels to be discolored. From what he remembered, he could feed her some bones once he was finished with her bath.

Laura looked at Flame and sighed, she was messing about too much and she had an injury to herself and Laura wanted to sort it out so that the the Fire Crab would be okay but Flame seemed to want to play instead of getting better.

Laura decided that she would finish bathing the Fire Crab first before sorting out the injury she had seen, she looked at Flame and smiled as she rinsed her thoroughly, she checked everything out and smiled when she realised that everything was okay.

Laura decided that she was going to rest for a bit whilst she let Flame enjoy herself, she also had to read what she had to do next, she hoped that once she had finished that Flame would be happy with her treatment.

Her nose crinkled as she saw both creatures devouring the worms...GROSS! But at least they were eating...She remembered when her brother ate a worm...Of course she had dared him to do it, but it was still disgusting! She smiled as she saw Ira bring over some more worms. The two crabs immediately got to devouring those as well. "Yes sounds good. Bath and then on to the wounds."

She nodded as she said she would be back. Seeing the stuff she got she said the same thing Ira had just said as she went to go find the brushes. She handed one to Ira and said "Here is a brush for you. Your supposed to gently scrub the entire shell using a light circular motion." She went over what she had just said and nodded that sounded right.

She took a wash cloth and a bucket from the side and started to fill it with water, by casting Aguamenti. "Bath time, Phoenix! she said enthusiastically... She cast finite when she saw it was high enough. She picked up her crab and set it in the bucket, so it could soak. She whispered to herself trying to remember the directions, "Soak, scrub shell lightly circular motion, massage with wet washcloth, rinse..." She picked up her soft brush and started to gently scrub her shell lightly in the a circular motion.

The crab quit trying to struggle free the minute it heard the water. Oh! Now that’s something he didn’t mind indulging in, although it was thinking of the way it would swim through the warm waters of the deep blue sea, not being poked and turned and scrubbed like it was a sedan through a car wash.

Ah firecrab has settled down somewhat. The Ravenclaw grinned happily as he felt the water in the bucket, then slowly dipped the crab into it, allowing it to swim around for a bit as he used his hands to scoop water onto its shell. He leaned his head to the side as he wondered why does this crab look somewhat familiar from this angle. With his brows still knitted together he started running his fingers gently through the shell looking for cracks or softened spots that shouldn’t be there, also loosening the built up ashes that settled on its shell…

She lifted the cloth and opened the cage to take Cannon out. SHe needed to fix his crack. Sarah had cleaned the animal, yet just in case she casted scourigfy on it. Hopefully that was okay. She then went to locate anti-septic cream yet hurried back before Cannon managed to get too far. She leaned over him and began to apply a thick layer of anti-septic cream on it. Now - what next, she needed to put a piece of tape on it, cue more scrambliung for tape and running back, huffing and puffing to put the tape on. Once the tape was on, Sarah made sure it was on right. She needed to do that in order to keep it clean and to make sure the cream seeps onto wound.

Now that she was done, she lifted the animal again and put him inhis cage and covered him with a cloth. She then went to put the cream and tape away. Hopefully she had done a good job - as her name was on the name-tag identifying it as her job. "By Cannon, don't backfire!" she called as she left the sanctury, and Cannon back fired in response

Swim! Swim! Swim! The firecrab was now quite content, almost forgetting about not-noisy, pale-face gorilla for a moment. But ONLY for a moment-- because now he could feel something poking at his shell. He swished his tail about and waved its crabby arms, possibly trying to HIT the bothersome intrusion. Leave him alone yeah?

Vickers couldn’t feel anything that seems to be seriously wrong with the creature, although it doesn’t seem to have been bathed properly, given the filth that was caking it. He took hold of the soft bristle brush and started scrubbing with small circular strokes. As he loosened the dirt he started to realize why it looked familiar ”Hey… you’re Elijah’s firecrab arent you?” The one grasping
tightly and nearly mutilated the Hufflepuff’s chest, not that the he didn’t deserve it anyway.

And in spite that, Vickers had to chuckle ”Did he ever name you boy? What say we call you the Wilde One?” Because if this was one creature that survived the care of one hammy Puff, he deserved an awesome name like that.

Laura decided that before she would put the Flame back into her cage she would quickly sort out this crack, she had cleaned the wound already so she put the antiseptic cream on the wound and then taped it up she was sure it wouldn't be long before Flame was back to being as right as rain, or in her case as right as fire.

Laura looked at the next step oh so whilst still wet place the Fire Crab back into the cage, Laura picked up Flame and smiled. "It's time for you to go back into your cage." Laura was hoping Flame wouldn't mind, she would let it out again another day. "In you go." Laura smiled as she put the crab in the cage and shut it, then she put a dark coloured cloth over the top of the cage like she was told too.

Oh… so not only was he being poked… he was being scrubbed too? And just when he thought pale-face was nice and quiet and dumb it started making noises. Wilde One? Oh he’ll show you who’s wild…

The firecrab lifted its tail up and gave the noise a burst of fire towards his direction. Would’ve singed the hair out of those weird eyebrows too had he not forgotten that he was in his nice warm bath so the most that did was ripple the water and raise the temperature up several degrees.

”Oh hey… are you tootin?” the Ravenclaw snickered, watching the
water ripple before him. Although he could feel that the water warmed up considerably. He grabbed the soft washcloth and decided to use that to hold onto the creatures’ underside, wiping clean what he can while he worked on the shell with the brush.

Laura looked down at the mess that she had made, okay so now before she left she would have to clean this up, she was really messy, there was water all over the place and the bucket needed cleaning, she started by taking out her wand and using the drying spell to dry up the water of the floor.

Laura then emptied the bucked and made sure it was clean, she then looked at the brush and "Aguamenti!" she then rinsed out everything she had used and then she dried them before putting them back where she got them from, she then looked at the cage and sighed, she was finished for the day, she would just have to remember to come back and take the tape of the Fire Crab she was sure that everything was okay now so she decided to leave, if Flame did anything wrong she would switch name tags with Sierra, so she could take the blame.

Now this is the tricky part, how to clean the underside. Most creatures doesn’t really like being flipped onto their backs. Vickers shifted the bathing bucket around so that he could face Wilde One, gently lifting the firecrab as he slipped the washcloth under its arms and chest area.

Did he hit pale face? Did he? Did-- No. Because now he had them scary blue orbs looking in his general direction again.

And now he was being lifted and wiped. Bah! He just wants to swim! How to make pale-face go away? Well last time someone annoyed him so he just grabbed onto something with his pincers that was sticking out within easy reach-- oh hey whats that in the middle of his face?

Though Max wasn't overly wild about fire crabs, he didn't have a disliking for them either, so he didn't really mind that they were the creature they had to take care of this term. He had read up on fire crabs plenty of times; he knew their general needs for survival and how to take care of them well. Fire crabs were also one creature his father had never taken care of, which provided Max with extra incentive: surely his father would be jealous.

Upon entering the sanctuary, Max removed his light jacket and set it by the door. He began a slow meander down the middle of the stalls, checking to see which already had names and were claimed. As he neared the end of one row, he found one with a blank name tag. Curious, he neared the stall door and peeked his head over the door to look down at the fire crab. It was... cute. It was one of the smaller fire crabs, he noticed, and he looked to the tail to confirm his theory... yep. A short, stubby tail.

"Max, you are now the temporary father of a female fire crab. Congratulations," he said aloud softly to himself(with the slightest hint of sarcasm) as he opened the stall door and stepped inside to check out his new fire crab friend. "Hey, buddy. I'm Max. I'm gonna be your daddy for a little while, if that's okay." He watched as it just looked at him, but it didn't seem alarmed - it was quite calm, actually. He took that as a good sign.

So now he had to come up with a name. What did one name a fire crab? Well... he didn't even KNOW it yet. How could he name something upon just meeting it? "For now, I'll just call you buddy." Maybe a proper name would come with personality?

Grabbing a washcloth, Ella dipped it into the water and got it wet, ringing it out a bit before starting to carefully wash Taco. "Alright boy, we're nearly done just a bit more work, okay?" She spoke softly and reassuringly, making sure to be extra gentle as she massaged the fire crab's shell. He really was being quite good considering being stuck in a bucket full of water. He was even keeping the flame farting to a minimum which was nice. Mhm!

She continued washing Taco, working her way around his little body and watching as flakes came off. ICK. The blonde wrinkled her nose as she watched the water become quite dirty. "Boy Taco, you sure were dirty." And yes, he was a fire crab but still...Eeewie. "I'm just glad that you'll be nice and clean after this bath." Especially if Ella had anything to do with it...which she did, since she was the one washing the creature.

Lifting the fire crab up a bit, the third year grabbed her wand and pointed it at the creature. "Aguamenti." She then rinsed the crab clean of all the soil and dirty water. BEAM. He was looking much cleaner already. "Looking good, Taco." She said with a smile.

"So, buddy... you wanna be clean? Huh? That sound like a good idea?" Max gave the small fire crab an encouraging smile before he exited the stall and made his way over to the large cabinet at the back of the building to check out the supplies. First, he grabbed a bucket and filled it with lukewarm water; he set the bucket to the side and dug through the storage for the softest washcloth he could find. He stuck it under the water for a few long seconds, then turned off the water and let the washcloth fall into the bucket.

Max picked up his bucket along with a bristled brush and waddled back over to his stall. "Hey, bud," he greeted again, wanting to establish a good, consistent relationship with his new friend right from the start. "We're gonna get you all cleaned up, okay?" The Ravenclaw set the bucket on the floor with the brush next to it and very cautiously opened the fire crab's cage. "You wanna come out?" He watched it carefully, noting that it seemed quite content in the cage.

Hm.

Maybe... maybe it was upset! Or... maybe it was hungry! Or... maybe it just didn't want to come out and visit with him.

Which was okay, he supposed. But he surely wasn't going to come back later - this crab needed a good ol' washing now. But... maybe the crab would be happier with some food. Bribery never hurt, right? Pushing himself to his feet, Max peered around at the stall. Oh... oh! The fruits! Max plucked a few of them into his hand and wiggled back down near the opening of the fire crab's cage. "Hey, bud, you want some? Want some food?" He dropped a little fruit near the outside of the cage then made a small trail out toward where he was.

And just like that, the fire crab was moving toward him.

Success.

Ella was nearly done with the bath and she eyed Taco carefully, making sure he was doing alright. He wasn't putting up much of a fight or anything so she figured that was a good sign. Her dog, Dino, hated baths and was absolutely horrid when she tried to bathe him so Taco was being an absolute trooper as far as Ella was concerned.

Dino was also a big baby so that might have added to his fear of baths.

"Alright Taco," She said softly, holding up her wand again. "I'm just going to rinse you off a bit more, okay?" That way she could check and make sure his shell wasn't in bad shape or anything. And she did just that, rinsing off the fire crab completely.

Using her hands, the third year felt around the fire crabs shell, happy that there were no cracks or discoloration. It did feel a bit soft, though. Really soft, actually. This made Ella frown a bit. She'd need to deal with this as soon as she finished bathing him. "Don't worry Taco, I'll have you fixed up in no time."

Carefully and gently, Ella carried the still wet fire crab back to his cage, placing him inside. She then reached for the dark colored cloth and covered the cage. "Rest now okay, Taco? I'm just going to clean up the bath stuff." And then she'd deal with the soft spots.

The blonde began rinsing out the bucket, scrub brush, and wash cloth. Making sure they were all quite clean before returning them to where she got them from.

Once the fire crab had made her way over to him, Max smiled down at her and said, "You like those? That's good. I'll be sure to keep that in mind." He watched her eat the last fruit for a moment before reaching over for the bucket of water. "Glad you joined me, bud. We're gonna wash you up and make you all clean, okay?" Once the fire crab seemed satisfied with the food and was just watching him curiously, Max gave its shell a nice, gentle rub. "This is gonna feel good. Trust me" He removed the wet washcloth from the water, set it on the floor next to him, and poured the bucket gently. "There. That's nice, isn't it?"

Smiling to himself, Max very softly massaged his fingers over the wet shell, feeling around for broken, cracked bits in the shell. He found a few small cracks, frowned at them upon finding each, and pulled back to look at his little friend. "Aw, bud. You've got a few little cracks there, don't ya? It'll be okay. I'll fix you up after you're nice and clean."

After a few minutes of letting the water soak the shell thoroughly, the Ravenclaw picked up the bristled brush and worked on the shell in gentle, slow circles. "You're looking better already, bud." He took special care not to brush on any of the scales, but he worked at particular spots under the rim of the shell where build-up was plentiful for many long minutes, wanting to be very thorough.

Perhaps this boy was lucky, because just at the moment the firecrab decided to reach out and take a sampling of his nose he turned the bathing bucket around, the pincers missing his face by mere inches. But did he notice that? Not really. The old habit of chugging along and doing tasks the way he was in animal shelters have pretty much taken over, being more concerned with getting the dirt out of those hard to reach crevices than his own nose nearly being taken out by the cranky crab.

The water has gotten rather murky now and decided it was due to be changed out, specially now that the firecrab needs to be rinsed. "Give me just a second boy..." he murmured as he lifted the crustacean out then vanished the water.

It may not have been the best choice to do that, lifting the firecrab out, because as soon as he did so Wilde One started to spurt spurt SPURT something hot from its rear, spraying hot water and steam towards the Ravenclaw. Hmpf! Thats what he gets from dragging him out of the water!

Once the underside of the rim of the fire crab's shell had been scrubbed sufficiently and all the build-up was gone, Max moved onto a certain spot on the top of the shell that had build-up right below a shiny jewel. He scrubbed at it softly in a circular motion and stopped every now and then to peek at his progress. As he worked with one hand, he subconsciously used the other hand to gently stroke the part of the shell near its head. This was kind of nice, wasn't it? The fire crab was... kind of cute. And it was mellow, just like him.

The crab actually seemed a lot like him. It was very calm and very observant - it seemed to like to watch him a lot. He was the same way. Was there a girl version of the name Max? Maxella? Maxema?

...Maxine. Of course.

"Do you like the name Maxine, bud?" he asked, continuing to stroke the shell. The fire crab just sat there, watching him; Max took that as an "I don't care one way or the other," and the seventh year gave a nod of approval. "Great. But you'll still be nicknamed 'bud.'" Because that term seemed to have come quite naturally.

Feeling that the shell looked wonderfully clean with the brush, he set it down and picked up the wet washcloth. Since he had just worked on the shell, that was the first part he instinctively with the washcloth in gentle circles to work on releasing any soil that still remained on the shell. Since he had done such a superb job with it, he moved onto very carefully and gently washing down the fire crab's stubby little legs one at a time. "Sorry if you feel violated, bud. Just trying to help." The fire crab seemed indifferent.

Once he finished the legs, he very cautiously lifted Maxine into the air with one hand. "It's okay." he assured, keeping the fire crab in the air as he worked on the underbody of the fire crab. "I'll be done in a second..." When it looked like all the soil was gone, he set Maxine back down. She seemed a little bit more lively after being disturbed, so he... let her settle back down for a moment. He still had to clean that tail.

Whoah watch out!... scalding shower!

Vickers ducked his head to the side juuust in time for that burst of hot steam spewed from the firecrab, nearly dropping that cranky crustacean in the process. But he DIDN’T, and he held fast and strong around the firecrabs’ pincers, holding his arm aloft so that the creature doesn’t end up smacking its head on the ground. When the Ravenclaw finally sat himself back up he glanced back at where the hot steam landed a few feet behind him then turned to glare at the firecrab ”Now what was that for huh?“ he muttered at the creature as he slipped him back down into the empty bathing bucket. He lifted his wand and, somewhat unceremoniously, dumped the conjured water onto the creature. It was supposed to be the rinsing step after all, its not like it could drown in a downpour heh.

He dipped his hand in and turned the firecrab around. He STILL had to make sure it didn’t have any unusual cracks or dents or strange discharge coming out that missed his thorough examination the first time. But he didn’t have to be too nice to this crustacean anymore, gotta show him who’s boss right?

”Alright you’re done!” he muttered as he plucked Wilde One out of the bucket, making sure that troublesome rear was facing AWAY from him. He just allowed the crab to drip dry for a moment before walking back to its cage, and still somewhat gently (it is just a simpleton animal after all) tossed it back into its home.

He went back to the cleaning supplies and tidied up. Consciously he touched his face and part of his head—did he get burned from that steam? He needed a mirror and check himself out. With one last exasperated look at the crustacean’s corner he turned around and made his way back to the castle.

Ira took the brush she was offered and began cleaning up her crab. Gently rubbing the wash cloth over the crab's body as her friend had repeated, she gently petted it. "You do feel nice being cleaned by me, don't you?" she gently cooed to the crab, still caressing it lightly as she watched Nerida do the same. And then seeing back to her crab, Ira kind of watched grinning. Amber was actually wriggling that short tail of hers! It was almost like, she was agreeing to her earlier comment!

Excitedly, she pointed this out to Nerida, and said, "She is really agreeing that she likes my bathing! Haha!" Giggling a bit, she then bent a little down, and gently whispered, "If you wouldn't have been spouting fire, I'd surely have had you as my pet!" A fire crab for a pet? It certainly sounded good!