They sure were close now weren't they? Wade could practically see the details of the Groundskeeper's Hut from here, as Nicole was taking her time. That was pretty close earlier after all.

"Yeah, I'm good. You?" Well, he didn't want to just stop his part of the work and risk a random boulder from the sky making a pancake out of them. So he put his wand to the saddle again, Sowilo sowilo sowilo... s s s s s s s s s... s s s o o o l l l... su sa si se so..." The glowing was intense. He concentrated on the final part of the journey. How successful they had been in avoiding danger and the need for the last one until they were free to hop off. "(sul sal sil sel sol)... us as is es os... si se su sa su... s s s s s s s s s..." Sorry for any random encounters, but they really did it.

How did he know? Well, Alec said so along with Nicole just about stopping and that was good enough signs for Wade to look back up at the Hut before them. "Awesome." He gave a bro fist to Spiffy, before rubbing the backbone of Nicole again, making her kick the ground a bit before squatting to let them off. "You did brilliant Nicole." Giving her some gentle pats before hopping off. As for Alec, well he had some hair ruffles to get from Wade, but he waited till he was off Nicole now before saying with his arms wide out. "That was brilliant leading, Alec." Seriously, he should consider doing this professionally. Heh.

At least the water hadn't gotten Ella off task. Even with all the panic and confusion Tag was going through Ella still continued using the runes. See!? Tag knew he could depend on her.

Then Tag let out a little quiet laugh when Ella made her joke. It was a good one. At least she didn't take the accident badly. " Yeah. We like to look our best. And I would want my hair to be shiny too. Not my mane." Lame Kildare joke was lame.

Anyway the hut was nearly in front of the them. The horse trotted lightly alongside the path while Ella continued doing her work. This time around there came a small boulder, Tag gently pulled on the rein and the horse continued down the path, and completely avoided the boulder! Yay horse! " Are you doing ok back there?"

The last little trot over towards the hut was the best part. There was nothing they needed to worry about and so, they could just enjoy the last little bit of this horse riding. Botros was right, this wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Easier than flying on a broom? ... He thought not. Maybe.

Dodging bludgers was hard, you know.

He was good? "That's great! I'm really glad, mate," Really. He probably wouldn't have forgiven himself if anything happened to his Hair Ruffling Buddy. Indy probably wouldn't have forgiven him either. As for himself... "Yeah, I'm great!" ... Or... maybe he should have just stuck with the usual 'good'. He wasn't going to correct himself or add in anything else since Wade seemed to be buy invoking the runes. So... he shut up. And looked around.

Bro fistbumps were happening! Grinning, Alec fistbumped Wade back. YEAH. That was one of the best ways to end a horseriding... race? Adventure? Shrugging, he waiting until Nicole was close enough to the ground before swinging his right leg over to the left side and jumping off. He reached over and gave the horse an gentle, affectionate pat. "Wade's right, you were brilliant! Did you see the way you had jumped over those boulders and that puddle?" Alec hadn't either but that wasn't the point. "Just... just brilliant. Thanks, Nicole!"

"Thanks mate! Brilliant rune invoking!" GRIN! And with that, he moved forward and wrapped the boy up in a big super!hug. Forget fistbumps, HUGGING was the best way to end this horseriding adventure.

She was funny, huh? Ella smiled at this. Normally people laughed when she said stuff that she hadn't meant to joke about so if felt good for someone to laugh at something she said when she was actually kidding. She giggled softly at Tag's reply and shook eyed his hair thoughtfully. "I bet Alec likes it best when it's shiny too." Speaking of the boyfriend, how was he doing on the horse with Curly? They weren't having any trouble, were they? Hopefully not.

"Raidho Raidho Raidho... r r r r r r r r r... ru ra ri re ro... rudh radh ridh redh... rodh... (rut rat rit ret rot)... or er ir ar ur... r r r r r r r r r..." They were nearly there, yeah? Ella could see the hut and she wanted the runes to last at least that long. She'd just need to concentrate extra hard and keep them glowing. That would help them get there for sure.

"I'm okay, yeah. Nice steering, by the way! So far so good." And he wasn't the only one doing a good job. "Nice job to you too, Mr. Horse. We're nearly there."

"Raidho Raidho Raidho... r r r r r r r r r... ru ra ri re ro... rudh radh ridh redh... rodh... (rut rat rit ret rot)... or er ir ar ur... r r r r r r r r r..."

Yes, Ella. You had your shining moments. You should thank your boyfriend for spending so much time with his boy. Alec must've carried on the humor from Tag to Ella. "Shiny and extra blonde and extra spiky." Alec held a lot of things on Tag about his own hair.

An more runes come from Ella, which was making Tag smiling. She was doing good as well. AND she had a much harder job, truth be told. So all the awards to you.

Compliments to the leprechaun and to Mr. Horse. Whoop whoop. Well Ella continued to work on the runes invoking, Tag barely had to move the reins because the horse was finally deciding to be a good boy. He gave Mr. Horse, as his partner had called him, also, how did Ella know the horse was a boy?, a nice pat on the neck as a way to keep their ride calm, cool and collected.

And, they were pretty much at the hut. But Mr. Horse, or rather, Mr. Rebellious, didn't seem to want to stop. Tag wasn't very good at this. So, he yanked on the rein, maybe too hard- he didn't know how much was good enough, and the horse's neck began to become bothered. "It's ok. It's ok. I'm sorry Mr. Horse. I'm sorry. This is my first time riding a horse. We'll go find you a girl in a couple of minutes." After those calming words the horse stopped moving about and finally stood still.

Shiny and extra blonde and spiky? Right. Ella had no idea her boyfriend had so many opinion's about Tag's hair. She'd have to bring this up later because it did make her curious. Would the hair whipper have a melt down if the leprechaun decided to try a new look? She had lots of questions now. Lots.

"Sowilo sowilo sowilo... s s s s s s s s s... s s s o o o l l l... su sa si se so..." (sul sal sil sel sol)... us as is es os... si se su sa su... s s s s s s s s s..."

The more Ella said the Galdr, the weirder it sounded to her. Like when you say a common word over and over again until it starts to sound unfamiliar to your ear. Funny how that happened sometimes.

And then something seemed wrong because the horse was veering a bit and they were at the hut now. Tag knew they were meant to be stopping, right? "Woah there, Mr. Horse. You're okay." Tag was reassuring him too which was good. It seemed to be working because eventually the creature did come to a full stop, causing Ella to smile. "We made it." And in one piece, no less. Thank Merlin for that.

Giving the horse an affectionate pat on the side, the blonde then carefully moved to get down. She wasn't exactly sure how the whole dismounting thing worked so she sort of swung her legs over the side and slid off slowly. Luckily for her, she landed on her feet. "Not so bad for our first time riding, huh?" And Tag owed their horse a nice set-up with one of the female horses around here, yeah? She was excited to see how that would go.

Adi held on tight to the reins as Caleb led the way. They were doing great so far and that's how he wanted it to go. No injuries for either them of the horse. "Awesome job so far, Caleb!'' Adi called to his Slytherin buddy. "And so is everything from up here!'' Was that a pothole there? Adi squinted. Yes, it was!

Caleb had no doubt seen it by now. So he should start chanting by now. If he didn't start in a few seconds, Adi would remind him to. But for now, things were good. Even their horse was calm.

Alec was very obsessed over Tag's hair. The guy gave the blonde leprechaun a hair care kit one Christmas. It had a spray that made his hair MORE blonde. Tag's hair was already really bright. Someone needs to intervene the hair ruffler.

An then Ella was using the rune one more time. Which was smart because if anything terribly bad had happened between them and Mr. Horse at least they'd be somewhat protected by her spell work. Then thankfully Mr. Horse, yeah, you're a good dude, stopped acting weird and stopped trotting. "Yeah, we did!" Tag said happily, a smile coming over his face while he fist pumped the air quickly.

He waited for Ella to get off first, was she shimming down the horse? before Tag looked beside himself. Hmmm. Mr. Horse seemed to be rebelling again and not wanting to cooperate since he didn't lower his back body. Frown. The little boy lifted his left leg over and switched around in his spot so that he was sitting sideways now. Then he took a little leap of faith.... not very smart... and landed on the ground and half stumbled forward and landed face first. "Not so bad for our first time riding. Very bad for my first time getting off a horse. You were an excellent partner." He said while getting up.

After dusting himself off a bit, and trying to act like nothing happened, Tag said, "HEY PROFESSOR BOTROS! I promised Mr. Horse over here, that if he got us to the hut, I'd give him a lady friend. Do you mind bringing over a lady friend for him as his reward?" No shame. Also, would this have to be OKed by the groundskeeper?

Now that they had made it, it was like a giant weight off of them. The danger was over, patting approvingly at Nicole again, "Yeah, Nicole. Thanks." Awesome horsie was awesome.

hm? He did alright with the runes? That was cool to hear."No problem mate, and thanks!" Next thing he knew was being hugged. Huh. He didn't expect that, but didn't disapprove of it. Wade laughed instead, hugging Alec back just as tight, before ruffling his hair. "If it wasn't Quidditch, I'd say you're a natural at riding horses."

Say, was that Tag and Ella coming over? He waved at them as they were hopping off their own horsie. So then, what was next? Wade wasn't so sure yet as he looked around for Professor Botros for their next thing.

Ascanius got the spell to work easily, as she knew he would. He was pretty good at this stuff, which was cool. And now they just needed to choose runes and stuff so...

...the class could move on. Okay. Well they could sorta wing it, she supposed. And Ascanius was volunteering to do the runes? Excellent! She had no idea what runes to use, so she was relieved to hear that he did. So she could do the more fun part.

"Yeah, s'okay with me," she replied with a grin before rubbing the horse's back like Botros had demonstrated. It took a moment but then the horse must've decided it liked them because it knelt down. Penelope slipped easily into the saddle. "You getting on?" It would be easier to keep the runes working and stuff if he was on the horse too, right? Or did he think he could keep up on foot when she was gonna try to get this horse to run as fast as it would go?

He'd let her drive his motorbike that one time and never again since heh. He surely knew she liked going really fast.

Then again, she supposed she would try not to go too fast if he didn't ride because she was a nice girlfriend but...she really really wanted to go fast. And surely her fellow food-loving horse would want to too. Maybe.

Caleb didn't want to start chanting before they got too close - because then they might overshoot and get there TOO early and then land on it or something and yeah. It could get bad.

So he cleared his throat. Right, this was where his chanting bit came in.

"sowilo sowilo sowilo...s s s s s s s s s...s s s o o o l l l...su sa si se so...(sul sal sil sel sol)...us as is es os...si se su sa su...s s s s s s s s s," he said, doing the chant for Sowilo first. That was the one they had attached first so it made sense that it would need to be recharged first.

Not wanting to discount Fehu, even though it looked good and was still glowing, he decided to do the Gladr for that too to be on the safe side. "fehu fehu fehu, f f f f f f f f f...fu fa fi fe fo...of ef if af uf...f f f f f f f f f," he said.

Man, he sounded like a neanderthal when he did that.

He saw her cast the spell and the horse was moving. It was quite cool! Now he just needed to prepare him. He tried to calm him down. He did seem a little bit upset without his wings. Kace tried to shush him down and once he did, it seemed to like him. He started to pet him and it seemed to nuzzle against him. Then it was runes time. He was going to use Raidho as well! Wow the professor and him thought alike. Well you know the saying great minds think alike.

*shrugs* He put the rune on the saddle and did the same incantation the professor did. "raidho raidho raidho... r r r r r r r r r... ru ra ri re ro... rudh radh ridh redh... rodh... (rut rat rit ret rot)... or er ir ar ur... r r r r r r r r r..." He was concentrating the he thought the rune was working. Then the horse was getting to be uncomfortable again and he started to calm him down.

"There...there..." he said patting him and petting him. Apparently it did like human touch which was good.

Adi grinned as Caleb chanted. He sounded funny. But he was getting stuff done! The Hufflepuff held his breath as they came closer to the pothole. Would they make it? Clinging to the reins, he waited. But yet he need not worry for the horse jumped gracefully over the hole!

He supposed that was due to both Caleb and the horse itself. "See anymore holes, Caleb?'' Or any other obstacles? Adi knew they would be able to make it soon to the Groundkeeper's Hut if they kept this up.

With one bush down and who knew what else to go, Eliza walked slowly and calmly with the horse's leads as she scouted ahead with eyes. There was a glimmer of a puddle or pond type thing that they were growing closer to, and she began to walk to the right of it. But instead of following her like the last time, the horse seemed to be thirsty and pulled lightly against her to get a drink. "Hey now, we're supposed to avoid these things, not revel in them!" she teased the horse. "I'll give you a big helping of fresh water from my wand once we reach the end. How's that sound?" She hoped her reasoning skills were working because she really wanted to reach the end of the trail without incident or setbacks. She knew it wasn't that far so she wasn't too concerned about the thirst factor for the horse at the moment. She wasn't cruel, she just knew they'd reach the end soon and the horse would be just fine. Besides, it was probably just an instinct for horses to get as much water as they could whenever they saw it right? Some sort of ingrained survival mode? Anyway, the horse seemed to take her meaning as she pulled again to the right and motioned her hand towards herself to get the horse to come to her.

They were on their way again and she looked up to Sophie. "Fehu sounds great! I always like a bit of extra luck!" she said with a smile to the girl.

Sophie grew wide-eyed as the horse steered itself slightly off the path they were traveling on and went for a drink of water. ...really?! Sophie had a final to do, and all her horse wanted to do was have a relaxing drink of water? Meh. She guessed she didn't blame him. After all, he had a whole human on his back. She guessed she would want a drink of water, too.

"...and now Raidho, for travel," Sophie said. "So when you put the two of them together, I'm hoping we'll have a really lucky journey to the end."

Having said that, she was meant to be chanting the Galdr for Raidho, wasn't she? Okay then. "raidho raidho raidho r r r r r r r r r ru ra ri re ro rudh radh ridh redh rodh (rut rat rit ret rot) or er ir ar ur r r r r r r r r r," she chanted. She always felt silly doing that.

Nicola chuckled as he explained himself about choosing nicknames. They have to be organic? Well, it definitely seemed like he loved to get very deep in thought of theses nicknames. As a matter of fact, she couldn't wait to hear these nicknames now.

As he moved his way to her, offering a leg up, she grabbed onto the saddle for a grip, quickly hoisting herself up without any problems. She adjusted herself a little bit, until she felt like she was comfortable enough. Giving Mo a nod for signs of her approval as he told her he'd lead her towards the hut.

"Alright, sounds like a plan to me.." Holding herself in her place, she decided she'd better start to continue to cast the runes to keep the saddle in place. Then giving her wand a wave, she repeated like before, "raidho raidho raidho... r r r r r r r r r... ru ra ri re ro... rudh radh ridh redh... rodh... (rut rat rit ret rot)... or er ir ar ur... r r r r r r r r r..."

Mo moved around to Alexei's head and took hold of the bridle. It was important to be polite, especially since Nicola was perched way up there on the Granian's back, so Mo told the horse very solemnly, "So we're going for a walk, Mr. Alexei, and we need to head that way toward the Groundskeeper's hut. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to lead you. It isn't that I don't think you're capable of walking by yourself, but Botros wants it like this. So... hope that's okay."

The horse did not seem to object, although he did roll one great horsey eye in Mo's direction and regard him solemnly as he spoke. That was good enough for Mo, who took up the bridle again and tugged gently in the direction he wanted to go. "Just stick with me and be nice to Nicola, please."

He was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Pen managed to get the horse to listen to her and trust her. She had one of those faces, he supposed. And it was good that the horse and her got on with one another because Ascanius wasn't going to be riding it. Not today. Motorbikes stayed ON the ground...and with his experiences with horses courtesy of Snaps he knew that they liked to jump.

Hah.

No horses for Ascanius, thank you. He'd just stay on the ground and do the work from here, yeah? It wasn't explicitly stated that he had to climb on board and he was not keen on the idea of doing that anyway.

He shook his head, "Nah, I'm gonna stay down here, yeah? I can do it from here. Keep an eye on stuff." Ascanius didn't trust the horse. He knew their kind and they had only ever made him scream like a girl before.

Drawing out his wand he decided to start with the rune for riding, since she'd be doing that and all, just to be on the safe side. He eyed the horse and began to chant lowly, "Raidho.........Raidho....Raidho..." Everything was going well enough, "r r r r r r r r r... ru ra ri re ro... rudh....radh....ridh....redh... rodh... (rut rat rit ret rot)... or....er....ir....ar....ur... r r r r r r r r r..."

Mmk. They were ready.

"Nope, nothing ahead except...well, a puddle," Caleb said, pointing to the puddle that was slowly coming up on them. Would they need to jump it or could the horse just clomp through it? Hmm. Better be safe rather than sorry.

He looked at the runes. Fehu was kind of fizzling out, much to his dismay. He cleared his throat again. "fehu fehu fehu, f f f f f f f f f, fu fa fi fe fo, of ef if af uf,f f f f f f f f f..." he chanted, watching with a smile as the rune started to light up again.

Adi squinted and spotted the puddle in the distance. They could do this! Their horse was a smart one and plus it liked the first years so he figured they'd be okay. They drew closer to the puddle, with Adi occasionally ducking his head from some overgrown tree branched that threatened to knock into him. They were almost to the Hut now.

As Caleb chanted, the Hufflepuff focused on clutching the reins. The puddle was upon them. And they need not worry again because the horse once more jumped and cleared the puddle with what seemed to be little effort. And with that jump, a branch finally got Adi.

*SMACK*

"OUCH!'' he exclaimed, clamping his hands down over his nose. Man, that hurt! His eyes were watering now as his nose stung. Ugh!

Aw, he wasn't gonna ride with her? Sad. Meant she couldn't go as fast as she would've liked, but it would be okay. Still fun too, since it was with him.

She let him get started on a rune as the horse got back onto its feet properly, stroking its neck with one hand a little to keep it calm while more magic was going on. Nothing to be afraid of, okay, horse? Horse...hm, maybe they should give it a name. It'd be better than just calling it horse the whole time.

His name could be...Speedy. Because he was obviously the fastest Granian out here, even though he might not be able to show it right now.

Oh, and Ascanius was done with the chanting for their first rune? So she could get Speedy moving now, yeah? "C'mon, Speedy," she said, getting the horse to move in a slow trot.

This wasn't too bad. Not too slow or too fast... What obstacles were going to be coming up on the path? She peered over the horse's head, trying to see what was coming up in front of them.

"Oh! That was number four on my list!" She realized what she said and covered her mouth with both hands. "Sorry, I had a list in my head... I was thinking of starting with Isa..." She looked rather embarrassed. Did they really need five runes? That was what she had in mind, anyway...

(Going to speed this along so we can get to the final assignment)

"Isa, to calm volatile actions... Ansuz, to increase communicative skills... Gebo, to create harmony... We already have Raidho to ensure a safe journey... and Thurisaz, for protection and defense." She cast each of the other four into the saddle, starting with Isa. "Alright, let's get our dearie going then, shall we?" She smiled as she turned to Kace. "Ready? Do you want to use the runes or steer?"

FINALLY!

Time to ride the horse. Eeeeep! This was going to be epic. While Botros explained and talked, Cassia kept nodding and had her hands on the horse's side, the nods of her head were supposed to somehow urge the man to talk FASTER and give them the ok to GO! But she at the end got to the conclusion that her moves had no effects whatsoever. It was worth the try. But he had finished NOW!.

The snake's head whipped around into Lex's direction. "Here we go." she grinned at her before reaching out to pat the horse's backbone gently as instructed. Though the sure part she wasn't so sure of. How does one pet a horse 'surely'. She decided she was doing so and didn't want to fuss about it. "I think he likes me," she told her bestie matter-of-factly inclining her head towards the granian. She figured Lex would be doing the same once it was her turn to hold the reins. Unless they didn't want to dismount. Which would be tricky but it was too early to think of that now.

She almost decided to climb the horse when he finally started to bend. Cassia beamed then cautiously started to climb on its back. Once settled she grabbed the reins and shifted forward leaving enough space for Lex to slid in. "Grab on tightly, I don't wait for anyone," she said attempting to smirk and hoping it had the effect she wanted it to have. Probably not on Lex, though.

Well, she tried.

Kace was amazed at how she was carving the runes into the horse. He stood there gobsmacked. He was learning how to do them and he was copying what she was doing. The first year was better at runes than he was. He nodded and approved of them. Then she asked him a question.

"Yeah we shall get him going!" he said happily. She asked if he wanted to use the runes or steer. He thought about it and bravely said, "I will steer him because i think the horse is not liking the magic too much." he told the little firstie. He saw it scared and she did preform all the runes on the saddle. He trusted her with her spell work.

"Easy there boy..." he said approaching him. Then it stooped shivering and was happy the magic was being preformed anymore. He climbed up onto the horse and was amazed how easy it was. "Woooaahh i think it likes me.." he smiled to her.

ooc: Yeah i wanna speed things up too. I know we have to do five but for times sake....

She nodded and looked up to the horse. Seeing how uncomfortable she was, she concentrated on Isa. "Isa isa isa... i i i i i i i i i......i i i i i i s s s s s s...i i i i i i i i i..." She said it softly, using the rune to create a sense of calmness between the three of them. "Okay, I'm gonna need a boost." Maika smiled to the boy. "If you could, please?"