Kace smiled at the mention of her name. "Nice to meet you Hayden." He nodded and then he saw the first year do the spell. She was doing very well. She had a lot of practice with this spell compared to him. She practiced this spell in Potions when they helped with the project so he had confidence in her. After she finished and he saw the bridle appeared he smiled. "Good job!" he said patting her on the back.

Then he turned to her and nodded. "I will be the driver. I always wanted to do something like this. Hope you don't mind.." he offered to her. He climbed into the carriage ready to take on the obstacles. He waited for Hayden to get in before he told the horses to go.

"Cool!" he responded cheerfully, wiggling about on the Aethonan's back. Maybe he'd mention in an owl home about meeting GothSaints' other owner's daughter, but for now, Dima would focus on the task at hand. "Should we name him?" 'Cause everything needed a name, it did.

The snowball would have gone unnoticed if not for the mushy stuff crashing into an invisible barrier. He was rather tickled at the sight but tried not to get distracted, quite the difficulty for Dima. At least he managed to lead their winged horse a good distance before another obstacle got in their way.

"Is that a... a snowbank?" Help, Sophie! Or they were going to go crashing into it, 'cause this kid right here was an AWFUL driver.

Should they name him? Heh. Sophie smiled. That seemed like something a firstie would want to do. She'd maybe done the same when she was a first year, too. "Okay," she said, "what do you want to name him?" Him? Was this a boy horse? Ehh. It really didn't matter, she guessed.

The snowballs stopped coming then, so Sophie ended the shield charm. She might need something else for whatever was up ahead. They traveled along a few minutes without anything in their way. It was all going pretty good until Dima spoke up and mentioned a snow bank. "Uhhh....yeah. That's a really big snowbank," she said. *bliiiiiiiink*

Uhhh... "Reducto!" she said. The spell shot through the snow, and the snowbank blasted to the left and right, leaving a path for them to go through.
"Steer him through there," she said with a point.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Observing the Aethonan thoughtfully, Dima analyzed the sound of its next neigh and decided that it seemed to be very manly. Male it was! "Let's name it... uh..... Dave!" He looked like a Dave, didn't he?

Sure he did.

The kid watched in awe as his partner caused the snowbank to deteriorate almost instantly, mouth dropping open a bit. At the last moment, Dima remembered his job and tugged on the reins, obedient as ever. He led the winged horse through the snowbank, wiggling a bit.

"Hey, couldn't he have just flown over that?"

How weird. Silly Dave.

Kyroh was too excited. He would be riding and driving and doing cool stuff on a WINGED horse. Attention still on Marigold as she patted his head the boy blinked. "But that's your name." Marigold that is. Why would he call her anything but her name? MAYBE SHE WANTED A NICKNAME?? Kyroh's face scrunched up just slightly as he thought of a nickname for the girl. Mari. Gold. They were so unoriginal. But she had t asked for an original nickname had she? "I'm going to call you Goldilocks! Like that girl from the muggle story! And I can be like the little bear ." Kyroh nodded and then put on the most ferocious face he could muster, nose wrinkled and teeth bared and everything. "GRRRRRR WHY'D YOU EAT MY PORRIDGE?" Yeah, you know?

Anyways Kyroh's ferocious face left him and a smile once again crossed his lips. As she decided on which horse they would use Kyroh started bouncing once more. THAT WAS THE ONE HE WANTED. It was fast. And difficult to handle right? And there had to be a reason for that and he wanted to know why and maybe even fix it too.

The first year watched carefully as the charm was done. He had kind of wanted to do it himself of course just to see if he could but they were PARTNERS so you had to take turns and stuff it was only fair! Climbing in right beside Marigold Kyroh took the reins awkwardly and grinned. He had NO clue how to drive a winged horse and so learning on the go was bound to be awesome.

He pulled on the reins a bit but the Granian simply bucked his head in annoyance. Er. This was suppose to be a race did you know horse? "Can you go please Mr. Granian... Or you know... Mrs.Granian." he waited but...nothing.

How'd you start a horse anyways? Giving a sideways glance to Marigold Kyroh took out his wand reached forward and gave the horse a soft like right it it's neck and- THEY WERE OFF!

The winged horse took off so quickly that Kyroh was thrown back into his seat and even lost his grip on the reins.

Aw shucks...

Simon flushed at Zander's compliment. He was terrible at taking compliments. He smiled shyly. Err... "Thanks mate! We made an awesome team," he explained. It was the truth. And disregarding all the bumpiness of the journey to get to the finish line and flying objects raining down on them as well as almost being squashed into a large ice mound, they had made an awesome team. They covered each other in aspects where the other was a little bit shaky on. He'd definitely want to team up with Zander again.

Now they had some time to kill before the other students made it over the finish line.

Also hopping off of the carriage, he followed Zander over to their Abraxon. He grinned as his partner thanked the horse. Seriously. Without the winged horse, they would have been back at the finish line getting impaled by flying objects.. Simon nodded. "Yes, he does deserve some nice treats or a nice warm blanket or something," he added. Poor horse. He must've been freezing in this weather.

Shoving his hands into his jacket, he stayed by his partner and the Abraxon as he watched more students race towards the finish line.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

OH, it was time to pick a WINGED HORSE!

Maddie slipped her hand into the older boy's and tuuuuuuugged him towards the creatures, a bounce in her step. She wanted a GOOD one, y'know? And the early birds got the winged wor--no, that wasn't right. Well WHATEVZ, she wanted a fast winged horse. A big one too. One that looked like a contender.

Brown eyes spotted a beautiful grey one and she wandered up to it, smiling BIIIIG. "Can we use THIS one?" The first year gave the boys her BEST puppy dog eyes and tilted her head. They COULD, couldn't they? HMM?

ALSO.

"Which job do YOU want?" She'd give him first pick since she'd clearly be good at ANY job at all.

What job DID he want? Caleb played along with the younger girl, letting her lead him over to one of the horses. He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, he's cool I guess," he said. He could care less what horse they used, really. As long as they picked a FAST one!

"I can protect," he told her. Yes, he was the BIG older, strong man, he had to protect the young girl!

He GUESSED? Maddie gave the kid an INCREDULOUS look cause this winged horse was CLEARLY the most agile and lovely of them ALL. The fact that he couldn't SEE that made her doubt him as a partner FOR SURE.

"Yeah, okay. Bet I'll be an AWESOME steerer so I'm okay with that." But FIRST they needed one of those bridle thingers. UHHHH.

The twelve year old stepped up to the winged horse timidly and smiled a little. "Hello there." She then gently placed a hand on the side of its head and gave it a soft pat. It WAS beautiful and she was sort of distracted but she DID know the incantation. Hovering her wand under the ears and then drawing along towards the winged horse's mouth, she said, "Fixate!" PAUSE. ...Nothing.

SIGH.

"Wait, I got this." Take TWO.

This time she concentrated and began moving her wand along the side of the horse's face, hovering it so it wasn't touching. "Fixate!" THERE! A BRIDLE!

"Alright, let's DO this."

Was it a boy or a girl? "Err...," Sophie mumbled. She was a bit distracted by the snowbank she'd just defeated. Dima seemed to know what was going on, though, because he'd named the horse Dave. "Dave--yup, sounds good to me!" Dave it was. Sophie reached over and gave Dave a gentle pat. "Good, Dave." Yes. Good, Dave. No kicking until we get to the end and step away from you. Or no kicking at all.

So everything was going along just fine at that point. Dima seemed to be having a good time with Dave, and no snow had attacked them yet. That is until they stepped literally a FOOT forward and a BLIZZARD CLOUD decided to hang right over them. There was snow and wind everywhere, and it was completely unexpected. "AHHHH!" she called out.

"Protego!" she said again, and a shield formed over the three of them as they walked along.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

He GUESSED? Maddie gave the kid an INCREDULOUS look cause this winged horse was CLEARLY the most agile and lovely of them ALL. The fact that he couldn't SEE that made her doubt him as a partner FOR SURE.

"Yeah, okay. Bet I'll be an AWESOME steerer so I'm okay with that." But FIRST they needed one of those bridle thingers. UHHHH.

The twelve year old stepped up to the winged horse timidly and smiled a little. "Hello there." She then gently placed a hand on the side of its head and gave it a soft pat. It WAS beautiful and she was sort of distracted but she DID know the incantation. Hovering her wand under the ears and then drawing along towards the winged horse's mouth, she said, "Fixate!" PAUSE. ...Nothing.

SIGH.

"Wait, I got this." Take TWO.

This time she concentrated and began moving her wand along the side of the horse's face, hovering it so it wasn't touching. "Fixate!" THERE! A BRIDLE!

"Alright, let's DO this."

"Alright, ready?" Caleb asked, and a moment later she had replied that she was ready. She was very, erm, EXCITED. Had Caleb been that exciting as a first year? Probably not, he wasn't one to get all jumpy and such over things like this. He WAS a bit nervous though, because if he couldn't protect them and the horse, it wasn't just HIM who was going to be hurt!

"Let's go!" he said, and the horse started to walk. Alright, here they went...

Dave was apparently a really lazy horse, because he would not fly at ALL, no matter how much whispered encouragement Dima provided to his ears. The first year tried and tried to no avail, but the horse was walking. Which was a pity, because they would have avoided a LOT more obstacles if the darn creature would stretch his wings and do what he was MADE to DO.

Stubborn Aethonan. This one was a Gryffindor.

He let Sophie take care of the sudden blizzard, ignoring the wind and snow as he tried to prod Dave into flying some more. "Come on, man! Just flap 'em! Like a bird! You can do it!" Or so he hoped, but Dave wasn't having it. Sigh.

Narrowly avoiding another snowbank with another tug of his reins, he continued to pester his creature.

Thank Merlin for that bridle, or the animal would have probably attacked him by now.

Sophie glanced to the side as she heard Dima urging the horse to fly. She didn't think they'd be that lucky anytime soon, and also...how was she supposed to protect Dima if he was all he way up in the air? She ended the shield above them as soon as it seemed they were out of the blizzard. "This is why I hate snow," she mumbled.

...and they were in the clear for another few minutes.

Then the snowballs starting coming at them again. "What is the deal with the snowballs?" she said, asking that to nobody in particular. She decided to try a different spell this time. "Depulso!" she said, banishing the snowballs away from them. They starting bouncing away from them one by one, like they were bouncing off an invisible wall. "You alright over there?" she asked Dima.

Maddie took hold of the reins awkwardly as the winged horse began to walk and she glanced over at her partner, trying not to show how nervous she was. Did she know how to control a winged horse? NOPE. She also had no idea how to drive ANYTHING other than a broom so this MIGHT be a bit more difficult than she thought it'd be.

"So uhhh...how do I get this guy to turn?" Probably needed to tug on the reins or something, right? It didn't help that they were picking up speed now and Maddie's hair was blowing into her face, blocking her view. AJSJGJLS! PROBABLY needed to see to steer... PROBABLY.

The twelve year old paused for a moment to push her hair out of her face and then gently tugged on the reins, hoping to turn slightly to the left. WAS it working? HMMM?

Norah beamed at Jasmine and Cris, accepting their hugs gratefully for it was RUDDY FREEZING out there. She jumped up and down shouting "We did it!" a little more obnoxiously than necessary before Cris wrapped his jacket around her and Jasmine. She smiled blissfully before realizing the jacket's wonderful smell was probably because of BOY GERMS, EW so she shrugged it off her shoulders as graciously as possible to allow Jasmine more coverage. Yeah, she could keep that to herself. Norah grinned at Cris anyway, because it wasn't his fault he had cooties, and said "Thanks, but I'm alright." It was kind of true, anyway. The celebratory jumping HAD helped a little with the whole freezing situation. Wrapping her robes more tightly around her, she beamed at the two older students and gushed, "Thanks for letting me join your group! We were AWESOME." If she did say so herself...which she did. NOW, could they get inside PLEEEASE?

Angel smiled at her sister as she continued to steer the horse. "I don't need a back seat drive AJ!!" Angel giggled at her sister. "Next you'll be telling me to mind the tree or mind the school or something silly." Angel used to love watching that show, if only she could remember what it was called, keeping up something or other she couldn't remember what.

"Okay!!" Angel smiled as she moved the reign a little and then she heard what else her sister was saying, seriously she didn't need a back seat driver, she had asked her sister what she had wanted to do and her sister had chosen this. "Hazard at 2 O'clock." Angel shouted as she suddenly saw something coming their way she hoped her sister had heard her.

AJ was trying VERY hard not to get annoyed by her sister. This was a competition and she didn't want to lose. She was pretty sure that first place was out of the question, but maybe if they tried really hard they could manage to not come in last place. That would be nice after all. "I'm just helping you." She didn't want to get smacked off course by a snowball or some other obstacle that came out of nowhere. "We're in this together remember?"

Trying her best to ignore everything that came out of Angel's mouth other than what was important AJ focused on what lay ahead. Suddenly she heard her say something that wasn't a jab at her. I'm on it." AJ looked in the direction that her sister had called out. Sure enough it was another pile of snow. The reducto spell was obviously working so well for her that she decided to once again go with that one.

"Reducto." Whoops. Nothing happened, and the the pile of snow was RIGHT on top of them. Crap, she needed to focus and get this right. With all of her concentration on the pile being blown to smithereens she tried once more. "Reducto." This time it worked, and the pile was no more. "Good looking out sis." Where was this blasted finish line at?

O_____________O

What. Just. Happened.

Wide-eyed, Beverly stared at Cutty's outstretched hand which gripped his wand, which had just moments ago pierced through an ice ball. Not a snowball, but an ICE BALL. Had she sat up, Beverly was a million percent sure she'd have got knocked out and off the winged horse and onto the frozen lake. Just for a few seconds she turned just enough to look at Cutty.

He saved her.

Then, just as soon a second realization hit her. With a mixture of wonder and surprise shock, she said, "You could have skewered my head!" What if she HAD sat up? She'd have gotten hit by an ice ball AND skewered by Cutty Mordaunt's wand.

Still...Bevelry Wayne was secretly a tiny bit thankful Cutty Mordaunt had stopped that ice ball before it got her. Turning back around, she snapped back to focus and steered the Granian to the left to dodge an Aethonan, then urged it to go straight, and faster.

She'd thank him later. Maybe. If she remembered. Probably won't. She needed food.

Angel looked at her sister, as she tried to keep her temper in check, normally they worked well together as a team but for some reason today that just wasn't happening. "I know sis, I'm sorry." Angel would have looked at her sister but she was a bit busy steering, she wondered what would happen if they lost the steering stuff, she held on tightly as she thought about it, she didn't want to end up in Norway or somewhere like that because they couldn't stop the horse.

"Thanks!" Angel then decided to praise her sister. "Your doing amazing at blasting these things out of our way." Angel beamed. "Your the best blaster I've seen." Angel said truthfully. she was a bit scared now, she'd seen everyone go passed them, was her horse ill. "I think we have a ill horse, sis, it doesn't seem as fast as the others, maybe we should tell the Professor when we get back?" Angel wouldn't take the fact she had lost, something must have been wrong with the horse for that to happen.

"Sis, 5 o'clock!" Angel was just thinking about the horse and why it might be so slow when suddenly she saw another object, maybe that was it, she had a broken winged horse that didn't like objects being thrown at it, she knew she wouldn't like it.

Angel was always quick to apologize and that was something that AJ didn't have a problem doing, but she wasn't always the first one to say sorry. "I'm sorry too. I just really wanted to win." Angel knew first hand how AJ got when it came to winning. AJ didn't even want to think about how many other teams had already passed them, but there was nothing that she could do about that now. They just had to stay focused and get through this. They were only first years after all so for that reason alone they were doing pretty well.

And now she was praising her, and all of her frustrations seemed to ebb away. She didn't really have a right getting angry at her sister. Angel was doing her best, and AJ didn't always have to be in control. "Thank you. I guess all of that practicing really paid off." It had been frustrating in the beginning when she was first learning the spell, but it wasn't so bad now.

5:00? She was on it. The first year squinted her eyes trying to make out what it was. It looked like a giant snowman to her. Either way, she needed to get them past it. Reducto was her go to charm, and she wasn't going to change anything up now. "Reducto!" And just like magic, the snowman wannabe was no more. "We're almost there Angel... just a little bit more."

Angel giggled as her sister was awesome again. "We make an amazing team and this horse is the best." Angel smiled at the horse as she tried to get it to go faster. "Your amazing aren't you." Angel decided that she would talk to the horse to try and get it to go faster, she moved the reigns around and steered perfectly.

"Yeah, I always think practicing is the best, it might seem boring at first but then you'll succeed in no time and your amazing with the reducto spell." Angel beamed as she continued on with her work, they had a race to try and finish and she knew her sister didn't like coming in last but to her she didn't care the horse she picked was always the best no matter where it came.

"Yeah I think your right sis." Angel was enjoying this. "I love partnering up with yo..........." Angel was suddenly looking straight at an object. "Eh sis, want to get that thing what ever it is?" Angel couldn't tell what it was all she knew was they were on a collision course with it.

"I think so too!" They really did make a good team when they were both on the same page and not arguing about something. Arguing just wasted so much energy and precious time. "Yeah, the horse is pretty cool. I wish we could ride it while it flew. That would be amazing." Of course the no fun professor made sure that it wasn't possible. Oh well. Maybe they could next time.

"It's definitely boring, but useful I guess." It was dead useful actually because look at how much success she had with the reducto charm. "Thanks Ang. It's really the only one that I have mastered, other that the water spell, but I don't see how that will help us here." So she would continue to stick with what she knew.

She was just about to respond to her sister when she realized what her cut Angel off. "What is that?" It was huge whatever it was. She wasn't sure if it was the light or what, but it seemed dark... almost pitch black. As they raced closer to it she realized that it was a mountain of snow. Oh man, AJ hoped that her spell would be powerful enough to knock it out on the first try considering that would be the only chance she got. They were dangerously close to it. The lion raised her handy, dandy wand once more. "REDUCTO!!!" Apparently it was powerful enough because the mountain of snow was blasted away and she could see the finish line. "Just a few more feet." Finally the horse and carried crossed over the finish line. They had done it. "We did it!" AJ was beaming from ear to ear. It obviously wasn't a win, but they had completed the task as a team, and AJ was very proud of her sister.

Having the race happen in open carriages really wasn’t the best idea, if Lily’s opinion counted for anything. It was cold, and now her robes were practically drenched in the middle from getting hit by the same snow that had caused Ethan to splutter. “I’m sorry…” she called out, the words trailing off into the cold air as they’d seemed to speed up even more. That and she’d had to reach out to grab the edge of the carriage again as the acceleration knocked her off balance again. At this rate, she was worried they’d end up colliding with the professors’ carriage, but then, maybe they deserved it, tossing snowballs in their path.

She swung around and cast another silent hot air charm in her partner’s direction at his complaint, though, hoping that helped. At the very least, maybe it would melt the snow still on his face. Hopefully it wouldn’t freeze and cause ice, but they were moving fast enough that she couldn’t see how anything could freeze. Except for the fact her robes were starting to stiffen a little, and she turned her wand on herself again for a minute before feeling her side get pelted by a snowball and spinning around again. That wasn’t fair, attacking them when they were distracted by practically being in a runaway carriage.

“Protego. Confringo. Impedimenta.” A steady stream of spells spilled from her lips, the main focus being more on not hitting Gray as opposed to really aiming. There weren’t any other carriages close enough anyhow, but there were definitely snowballs. Snowballs that she was starting to really get annoyed at.

Angel was scared as she realised the objected was getting closer to them. "Maybe we can one day!" Angel really wanted one now and she wondered how they could go about getting one, she would ask both the professor later because this animal would come in useful.

Angel just prayed her sister could deal with what ever it was and it seemed that she could because the pile of snow had gone. "AWESOME!!" Angel yelped as she told the horse they were near the end and it seemed to listen as it sped up a bit.

"We did it." Angel beamed as they crossed the line. "Your were an amazing horse." Angel really was happy with the horse and thought that it was totally cool. "We did it, We did it!" Angel was totally happy. "Sis you were amazing and I can't wait to be your partner again soon." Angel had missed partnering her sister.

They were done, and all that was left to do now was to high five her sister and jump out of this carriage. "Need help getting down?" She knew that Angel was a big girl, but it was a far jump, and Angel wasn't the rough and tough type.

Err... AJ didn't really want to talk to the horse so instead she just nodded her head in approval. The horse could have been faster, but it was all over and done with now so it really didn't matter much.

"You're pretty amazing yourself. We should team up more." Maybe that would keep her off her back about Adi too so it was a win, win really. "I'm freezing." It was just then that she realized how cold that she had gotten again. She had nothing left to focus her attention on.

Hmmph! Cheating?? He thought not! Slytherins...no morals, he swears. However, they were getting close to the finish line and he already spotted some other crossing the line and lot more getting close.

THEY NEEDED TO PLACE!

Declan would save strangling the kid for some other day and put aside his growing hatred for Grayson. The faster they ended the race, the faster he can get away from this nuisance.

He was aware of how fast they were going, but as long as Grayson could shoot things up ahead without coming close to hitting the horses or themselves, they'd be okay. AND THAT YELLING! If he went deaf, at least he wouldn't hear this guy's wisecracking remarks ever again. "We're getting close!"