Great. So there went that escape plan. Layla let out a little gloomy little sigh at this news.

But she was quickly distracted from her musings of gloom and doom by a word she had never heard of before. A chort? Was that a mispronouncation of jort or skort? No, apparently it was a creature. A scary one, if other's reactions were anything to go by. Either she'd missed a class somewhere or the Nevada Academy of Magic didn't teach their students all they needed to know.

Well, that answered that. At her fellow Slytherin's mention of a destructive nature, something clicked. "That would explain why it suddenly started snowing in the Great Hall....." And she'd been blaming it on the age of the castle. Sorry, Hogwarts.

Wait, what if these things destroyed the castle before they could get rid of them?!

A Chort? Migration? Ethan’s brows furrowed then hung his head in frustration. Now there was another element to all of this. First, a curse, second, dark creatures that seems to be lurking around Hogwarts. If this was migration month for them, then why stay in Hogwarts? What made it so interesting to them? Were they out to hunt for food for their migration and hibernation, perhaps? And said food was them?

Grayson also mentioned East Russia. Merlin. That made him thought of Mordred, and Ana. She did mention that she’s from there, right? Where was she, anyway? Maybe she could enlighten them with details regarding the Chort, and how to defeat it.

Then…crying happened. Ethan looked up to see Lux crying. What if? Did that mean this Bay person already got hurt by one? The blonde boy looked out of the window momentarily and remembered Cutty, and a few others getting restless when he got into the Library for the Playmates Meeting under Professor Thompson. And…Cassia was sent out there too, yeah? “Cassia?” the younger snake looked around for their Head Girl discreetly. He didn’t want to upset Lux any further. Ethan stood up and walked over to where the older Snake was. “I remember Professor Thompson asking you and Jasmine to bring blankets for Professor Kitridge and another student while they were at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. You reckon, what attacked you guys was a Chort?” he asked in a low tone, as he crossed his arms waiting for more information.

Text Cut: Lex+Cassia! (quick sum up)

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

There was nothing worse than someone else being right by default. The only thing that made this easier was the fact it was Lottie advice and that was usually the easiest thing to follow. This staying inside because it was the smartest decision in the Universe business was rubbish but what choice did she have? "I'm trying." She informed the concerned bestie. "Hard to venture out when the giant double doors are sealed shut behind Merlin knows how much snowfall and the wind makes a habit of shutting the windows you open." No flying through windows either, go figure. Not that the sky was any place for a Gryffindor at a time like this.

Just as she thought, it was a powerful book. Familiar powerful. Somehow she felt like it should have been ringing more bells than it was but........the last thing Lex would remember while stir crazy was notes in a book she didn't actually read, you know?

"I dunno what the weather was like either but if it's got powerful magic in it then it might have something strong enough to make a never ending snow storm?" Surely it wasn't just some fancy wand waving that got them all stuck inside. It was still a little far fetched though. When was the last time anyone even SAW that book?--

Circe look at the size of that book Lottie was attempting to read.

....Lovely.



Never trust a sentence that started with 'you should know', it usually came right before someone stating something you had absolutely NO idea about. Take for example Professor Botros here who was under the impression that in her state of jittery restlessness, she could still remember things taught in any lesson that didn't involve tunneling under the castle and them breaking free of this place. Thanks for the reminder though, it was much needed. "So then.....you taught us how to remove stuff and make 'em ineffective, has anyone checked if someone messed with our runes?"

Then he complimented her while saying things that required further thinking and the Gryffindor could only look to Lottie who seemed to have gotten more of what the Runes Professor was going on about.

What now? Her brain wasn't into learning today, evidently.




"Are you saying this really is magic?" Like agreeing they might be cursed forever and all eternity? "If that's the case we're gonna need to find things on counter curses for weather." Had to get rid of it somehow and Airey had hinted that they may need some help from runes and such.

And wasn't Cassia coming?

Quote:

Originally Posted by the fastest seeker

Searching, yup. She was here to do that. Or you know, contribute in that. Partners, he said? Before the snake got a chance to look around to search for a partner to stick with the most familiar voice of them all called her name. She was going to miss that one, was she not?

Not needing to confirm the question, Cassia walked over and stood with the two sixth-years giving them both a wink plus smile greeting. No time for formalities. She stood her arms crossed over her chest as she listened to what Lex and Lottie were saying. Mhhm. Glad to hear they cancelled the option of going out. The seventh year nodded in approval. Surely her opinion was known on that one.

Oh, and Lex with a book, interesting look. She was just going to stand here enjoying the view.

"Now that's an intereting looking book," she told Lottie. Was she gonna read it? That might take time. Mhhm. "You know, we could check the index and see what it talks of," surely there would be no time to skim even.

Her attention then was drawn to Simon who was checking the codex. Interesting things he was saying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

There she was! And look she'd gotten her own book too. They could add to the searches. Lex made room for Cassia where they sat at the table and gestured to the mountain of other books she could sort through once the one she already had proved to be of little use to her.

Wait what? Snort. "Interesting is hardly the word to describe that monstrosity Lottie's got. Dunno why she's so keen to kill her brain cells." Reading massive books for lack of any other options. Surely it was a slow torture the Professors were exacting but eh, nothing else to do and no other way to go without getting looks for being a Gryffindor about the whole thing.

She flipped a few pages further into her book before hearing that Simon kid read some eerie poem thing....about a 5 month winter? The Gryffindor turned in her seat to watch him as he went on but the more he spoke was the more confused she felt. "A witch? 5 month winter?" Hadn't she JUST asked how they'd know if they were cursed? This seemed legit. How many months had it been snowing now? Maybe it was almost over and they'd be able to leave early for their distress?

At the mention of runes on the side of the page Lex got up, gesturing for Lottie and Cassia to do the same before walking over to the boys by the Codex. "What runes? And does it say anything more about the witch...? Or how they finally unfroze the winter?" That was the most important part of it all, no?

Yes, excellent! This was the only good thing about being actually trapped inside this Castle. Lex really had no way of going out to venture in the snow. So, Lotus just nodded at her words, wondering when would they be able to open one of the doors and finally leave this magical mess.

Never-ending snow storm... that's not very optimistic, Lex, especially not when they have summer plans that Lottie would very much like to happen.

Though no comments were made on that, because... she laughed, softly, at Cassia's comment, and then shook her head at Lex's. You know, what? Consider the book CLOSED. Whatever seemed to be happening with that Slytherin boy (Simon) was much more interesting than everyone else on the table. Also, "I'm not killing my brain cells, Lex." Seriously, she doesn't intend to.

....Winter eternal. Man, as dramatic as any Ravenclaw can be.

Following Lex's cue to get closer to the boy, Lottie noticed the carvings they spoke of and... well, this would be a MARVELOUS time to have that cute History of Magic teacher back, don't you think? Too bad he wasn't here now to help them...

...and then... a chort?

Well, honestly, she was this close to giving up. And a girl was crying, brilliant. Eyes went to Cassia when another boy (Ethan) asked her something.

A chort..
Lucy said:"my father told me that a chort is considered to be a demon..but he doesn't live in these lands..
Doesn't he?"

Botros had met Flamsteed's eyes when the Star Man practically gaped at the paragraph and then at the old man. He moved closer to Mordaunt, who held the codex now, and fished out his reading glasses. "This is... interesting." He read and re-read the paragraph more than once as the kids started giving out ideas and theories and quite honestly, they all were so impressive.

"Can I see the picture closely, please?" The professor plopped on one of the close chairs and took a magnifying glass out of his breast pocket. "The Star Temple of Avalon.." He murmured, using the glass to inspect the old photo. "I do see what you mean, Holden, yeah." He moved it to the right side where there was a different type of carvings on the wall. "Those look... those look fresher than the rest of the carvings... darker..." Ab listened to the rune talk.

"Definitely Isa, maybe some were meant to be Hagalaz but they wouldn't bind Hagalaz with Isa, they don't fit together. I'd say those were multiple Isa's." He announced, straightening up from inspecting the picture and looking at Airey. "Isa carved with the right magic device and with the right spells can be quite the wrath of winter." He guessed scratching his chin. "But any unusual runic magic activity and the feeler in my office would've told me." More chin scratching.

... wait, chorts? He looked around inquisitively.

Jasmine listened eavesdropped with interest as her classmates discussed the Morgan La Fay topic. That was disturbing enough, but when Professor Flamsteed threw out the Chort question the possibilities went from bad to worse. Hearing the students share facts about a Chort triggered information buried in the back of Jasmine's brain. Yes, she vaguely remembered hearing something about chorts before and it wasn't good. "They tend to bring disease and destruction and most importantly cold and ice", Jasmine said to no one in particular.

Could this be the reason for the extreme wether they'd been having? Could it have been a Chort that attacked them in the forest? This was just too much to process, but it kind of made sense. Jasmine sifted through the books on the table, looking for something that could give her more detailed information.

Penelope didn't find anything particularly interesting in the newspapers she'd picked up, but just as she folded them up, it seemed some others had found some sort of clue based on all the chatter that was going on. So she set those newspapers aside and turned her attention in their direction.

Morgan la Fay? Runes? Star Temple? What in the world? Penelope's brow furrowed a little as she tried to process it all...and then someone was crying about someone being hurt. Oh...this was about that time when they were having that Creatures meeting and some people were sent out to investigate? That seemed like ages ago now...

She didn't have much to contribute with all those theories, but she wanted to somehow help a little bit, so she moved over a bit to be nearer to the crying girl, patting her on the back gently. "Hey, I'm sure he'll be okay," she said with a nod. Seemed like they were getting closer to understanding what was going on, so surely that also meant whoever was hurt would be getting better too.

And that it would actually feel like spring soon. That was also important.

Ok, Caleb was confused. Hadn't they JUST said it was Morgan Le Fay or something like that? What was all this chort business about now? He just had to trust that whatever madness was going on in Flamsteed's head, it made SOME sort of sense to the professor to mention it.

"It's a fire demon or something, but could a chort really be involved in this? I mean - it's FREEZING outside. Doesn't seem ideal for a fire monster..." he pointed out. He'd prefer a heat wave to an ice age, honestly.

Lex's eyes scanned the page as Simon went on to explain and indicate where the runes were shown. That was...weird but it made sense. Runes were filled with powerful magic and evidently this was powerful if Merlin had to get rid of it himself. No comments about Lottie not killing her brain cells. Sometimes Lex forgot that reading was one of those things Lottie actually tolerated--more than tolerated actually.

She moved over, giving Lottie more room to have a look and leaving space for Cassia as well. Her eyes locked on the snake at Ethan's question. Cassia had told her about that....but...a Chort?

Why was Airey asking about Chorts and and and Botros said he would know if runes were involved, so...back to the Chort talk. Could they have attacked the students? It would have been probable except..."When we learned about them last term Professor Romanos said it was highly unlikely they'd ever come toward Hogwarts and we shouldn't expect to see them around here." She'd asked personally so she remembered. Were they saying the Professor lied? It wasn't necessary. She could have told the truth. Lex would have welcomed it.

"I guess...objectively, if we did think it was them in the forest it would explain why they attacked, territorial and all." But the forest didn't belong to them, or did they forget? Those creatures in there should--hypothetically of course--show them who was boss. "You saying Chorts might be behind this?"

She looked to Lottie, ignoring the crying girl. Seriously Lux? This was not the time. You'll scare the Firstie. "You think Chorts could have done this?" She'd be damned if she let creatures keep her in this castle much longer.

Simon listened to his fellow researchers bring up facts about chorts with wide blue eyes. Wait! So they DID exist? That was very bad news. Finally Jasmine brought up something about the Chorts bringing the cold and ice. Huh. That fit in. So maybe the chorts were up to this?

Then Botros spoke up and came over to examine the photo itself. Simon listened to his Ancient Runes Professor’s observations about the new carvings being darker and fresher. So perhaps someone had done this recently? Was someone tyring to be Morgan La Fay and seeking revenge on them all? He nodded when Botros said that most of those carvings would probably be multiple Isa’s, which could be the wrath of winter. Huh. Interesting. Simon scratched his head at the next statement. Hmm… Perhaps the person or creature that created the runes had cast a protection spell so that they couldn’t be undetected by anything? “Is it possible to cast a spell that shields itself from the feeler?” Was that even possible?

When Lex spoke about the chorts being able to do this he nodded in agreement. That was his question exactly. Did those creatures even have that magical ability? Perhaps they ought to bring Professor Romanos in too. Maybe chorts were her thing. But if Romanos had said LAST term that chorts wouldn't come to Hogwarts as it was unlikely then he pursed his lips. "Do you think something brought it here?" Like some other caster that had attracted it to this area or someone trying to be Morgan La Fay?

AJ knew that this was a library, but the last meeting they had in here there was hot cocoa and finger foods. Plus, she had only spilled ONE hot cocoa that time. Sophie B came to her rescue all cleaned it all up, and all was well so really she didn't understand his response at all.

It was time to do some research, something that she had absolutely no desire to do especially without treats. She looked over at her sister. "Sure." Maybe Angel could do the reading, and she could take down the notes? It sounded like a good idea to her anyways.

Sighing slightly, AJ grabbed a book and hoped that she could find something in it that might be useful. Flipping through the pages she spotted a paragraph.

Did she need to put that into her own words? That wouldn't help anybody would it? Research needed to be verbatim to do them any good. Did you see this Angel? She turned the book around so her sister could get a good look. That is a lot of damage.

Angel looked at what her sister was talking about. "That seems really bad." Angel hadn't heard of that before though it was well before her time. "It's like in the UK, in the 1960 they used to get snowed in a lot, sometimes they couldn't get out for days so they were trapped playing games or doing whatever they could in the house." Angel had a funny feeling she wouldn't like that at all.

He was just going to step away from the Runes talk and let Old Man River handle that. Although the device he mentioned sounded rather nifty. AND SWEET SOLSTICE THERE WAS CRYING IN THE LIBRARY! MISS CARRINGTON WAS CRYING AND NOW HE FELT SANDWICHED IN.

To one side: runes talk that he knew nothing about. To the other side: crying that he wanted no part of.

Oh thank Merlin Miss Greenwell was there to console the Hufflepuff. Stellar. He was just going to sidestep himself away from all of this and towards the freedom that was the other end of the tables. Did he also mention that all this creature talk was also out of his comfort zone? He really should have been paying more attention when Medea had been explaining all this to him, but he had been more concerned about other things. Namely the fact that she had been so distraught.

Also...not he felt as dense as osmium for telling her that she was probably all worked up over nothing. She had been suspicious all term about all this, despite her acquaintance assuring her that there was nothing wrong, and he (Airey Flamsteed) had told her that she was over-thinking.

His attention briefly turned to Miss Cambridge when she spoke and gave her a grim nod. Highly unlikely did not mean impossible. These two theories, or one theory...or 10...he had lost track with all the conversation, required someone with a little more hands on experience with both fields - dark wizards and dark creatures specifically.

Wand out, Airey conjured a silver roadrunner that sped around the area and leaped on desks before speed jogging in place in front of the astronomer. "Medea, you are needed in the library immediately," he spoke his patronus before it went zooming over the desks, sending pieces of parchment into the air, and out of the library.

"It does seem bad. Look at the money it cost." That was outrageous. Plus, the lives lost was pretty bad too. "Yeah, the UK is bad about getting so much snow." Some snow was nice, but there was absolutely nothing nice about getting snowed in and not being able to do anything. If anything, it was down right rude.

Then an idea popped into her mind. "Hey remember when we went to Texas with dad, and it was so hot?" Like take your breath away kind of hot. "He said that there were some places that never snowed, like not even in the winter." Also, Airey himself said that somebody had a surfing santa as a Christmas mascot... or was that something she had researched for her homework? Anyways... "Maybe we should just move Hogwarts to Texas." That seemed like a pretty legit idea to her.

Simon was quick to explain things to Toby, for which the Hufflepuff was very grateful. Okay, so Morgan la Fay, long winter, star thingy, runes. Toby gave Simon a double thumbs up then as he gripped the Ancient Runes textbook under his arm.

Soon the conversation went on and Toby, in classic Toby style, ended up not following. He was aware that Flamsteed had asked about chorts, and that Soph was providing the information, but Toby concentrated on the runes side of things, just 'cause that was more his thing. When he glanced up at Soph, though, she seemed a little... he couldn't place it. Anxious? Toby would definitely go over there in just one moment. Yep. But right now there was suddenly just enough space at the codex for him to slip closer and have a look, which he did very briefly, and peered at the picture once Botros seemed done with it.

Moving back so someone else had space to look at the codex, Toby wandered back over towards where Soph was reading and stood close to her, nudging her gently with his arm whilst he half raised his other hand out of politeness, just to get Botros' attention.

"Professor, if it's a runes thing, is there a kind of rune or spell that can like... detect other runic enchantments?" he asked. "Like one that can point us to it, or something that detects that kind of magic, a bit like those Secrecy Sensors?" Everyone was probably still on the Chort thing, but Toby didn't know. It seemed plausible, but perhaps because he was more of a Runes kid than he was a DADA kid. He looked around at the group. "There might be Chorts... but what about other things, like what we've been learning about recently in Defence Against the Dark Arts? A Chort might cause the winter, but what if the runes and the magic caused the winter... y'know, like from the person who made that threat back in summer... and then creatures like that came, or were set on the castle?"

Ahem. Was that too much detail? Toby had been sort of as vague as he could be, understanding that maybe it was some scary stuff to be saying around some of the much much younger kids, though he still bit his lip guiltily for a moment. But this was meant to be a research meeting, right? This was what they were meant to be thinking up.

Back to the runes then, yeah?

"Maybe it's worth going around and searching the castle for runes like in that picture?" Toby pointed at it. "We learnt how to sort of reveal and break curses last year, right? Maybe it's something to try as well as the... other stuff." The whole fighting the Dark Arts stuff. Maybe it was a personal thing, but Toby prefered runes. No conflict plz.

It seemed as though Professor Airey thought the whole chort thing was serious enough to warrant sending a patronus to Professor Romanos, and that... that made Toby feel uneasy. He knew it wasn't his choice, be he would have preferred fighting runes, not dark creatures.

Now he thought he understood Soph's worried vibes.

Lux needed to get a grip, but it was hard to when all she could think of was the fact that her boyfriend might have been hurt by a demon. Demons were very bad, and Chorts were scary. Bay had to get better, but he was still out cold. She checked on him every day hoping that he would wake up because it would mean that he was getting better. Ethan was asking the Head Girl something, and Lux could remember that Cassia had been one of the people to head into the Forbidden Forest; she had seen her through the window at the book club meeting.

Feeling a hand on her back, she saw that it was an older girl she had seen before but didn't know the name of (Penelope). The gesture of comfort meant a lot to her, and Lux wiped her eyes though she was still crying. "Thank you." Hopefully she was right about that. Maybe Professor Romanos would know how to treat someone who was hurt by a Chort. Granted she wasn't a Healer, but she was learned in the study of dark creatures. Maybe she knew what Healer Tillstorm could do to treat him.

As if Professor Flamsteed had read her mind, a Patronus was sent off for Romanos. She would hopefully know how to stop the Chorts and how to heal Bay.

.....

What in the name of Merlin was going on here?!

First off this chort business. That was a big huuuh? Second off, the rune things. Third off, Lux. And fourth off, THEY WERE BRINGING ROMANOS INTO IT NOW?!

... Zander suddenly felt himself tense up. Did Professor Flamsteed neglect to realize that SHE was the one behind all of this! Why would SHE want to help THEM? She was the bad guy. She was the evil one. And he was suddenly getting a killer headache. That was probably Romanos' fault too. Wasn't everything at this point, really?

Was this guy insane?! Bringing the chort-er to solve the mystery of the chort-ie. Was Flamsteed in on it too!? Did he know? Suspicious glances everywhere. He was kinda freaking out. Bringing Romanos here was the absolute last thing that they needed at this point.

THIS WAS NOT THE TIME TO BE CRYING! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER WOMAN! WE HAVE MAGICAL FORCES GOING AGAINST US. Besides, where did crying get them? Nowhere. Simon just stared at her (Lux) for a moment before giving her a sympathetic look and refocusing. However, he kept ALL of these thoughts to himself because this girl seemed nice. Maybe over-emotional but still lovely. Why does karma like to play with Hogwarts? he thought. That was a question that he'd like to see answered.

Ahem. He refocused on the situation at hand. Toby's question made him raise a curious eyebrow. "Maybe, but what if the ancient runes were made in a sealed off part of the school? They could be anywhere in the castle and it could take days to find but I think we ought to do that," he explained, agreeing with his awesome dopplegänger. Heh.

Then Professor Flamsteed sent a patronus for Professor Romanos! His reaction to the whole situation was the opposite to Zander's. Simon grinned even more. Had Flamsteed read his mind? Simon too thought it would be a good idea to get Professor Romanos over here to help them with all of this chort stuff.

Interrupted during a yoga session. Of all things.

Grabbing the nearest jumper and pair of gloves, she started out of her office...only to turn back to grab her boots. Frozen toes, brrr. Heading up to the library, ideas of what could be the trouble naturally popped up every now and then. She'd been careful to not jump to conclusions nowadays, but how often did one receive an urgent patronus message? As might be expected, a large group of students and professors looking rather normal to say the least was not the sight she was expecting to see when she rounded the corner into the library. Oh...

Was a memo about a meeting she missed?

Chorts and runs and dark wizards....OH MY!

The astronomer was suddenly questioning his newly found interest in archeoastronomy. The man was all for pushing one's boundaries and stepping outside of one's consort zone, but his intellectual ego was getting seriously bruised by all this. Alluding to the winter solstice was the closest things had come to his field of expertise.

Chorts and runs and dark wizards....OH MY!

Tapping his nogging aggressively with his index finger, his eyes unfocused somewhere around the center of the table while he waited for his patronus to deliver the message to Medea. Hopefully her and Old Man River could make some sense out of all this, although it seemed as though the elderly bloke didn't suspect runic involvement too much.

"You think that is necessary, Professor Botros?" he questioned his colleague after hearing Mr. Tempus' suggestion. "Should we have a few groups of students go about the castle looking for any signs of runic engravings?" Or did he suspect runic involvement at all? COULD HE FEEL IT IN HIS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOONES?

Didn't old people do that? Feel things in their bones and whatnot?

And then Medea arrived and her presence brought his gaze back into focus and a subtle twinkle to his blue eyes. "Me---Professor Romanos," he greeted, clearing his throat. "Thank you for coming." Now who had the text in question right now? Mr. Simon? "A passage was discovered that you ought to take a look at..." he explained as he gestured towards the codex on the table.

And had Miss Carrington stopped crying yet? He was too afraid to look. He quite liked his insides not in knots.

Simon had the book sort of in between him and Ethan so he picked up the codex and handed it to Professor Romanos. Yeah good job. Oh wait. Someone should probably fill her in but what was a short summary of it all. Since Professor Flamsteed had started off with the image that they found, Simon then went onto explain a little bit about the page. "Professor, the passage speaks about Morgan La Fay, a five month winter, winter's wrath, and more," he explained as he pointed to the excerpt of the epic, the description, and the image.

He took a deep breath and then continued. "Then we wondered if those Runes had been placed somewhere around the school and who could have done it. Finally, we got to the topic of chorts which Professor Flamsteed brought up. But chorts are territorial apparently so why would they come here? Something must have lured them..?" Yep, Simon was going to be quiet now. He promised. After explaining all of that, he took a couple steps away and observed Professor Flamsteed's and Romanos' interaction with very interested eyes.

Ethan had his eyes on Flamsteed the whole time and wondered how in Merlin’s name did he come across the word ‘chorts’ or whatever made him think of one? Did he find anything about the demon creatures by accident or…? His question then was answered when he sent out a Patronus to Professor Romanos, their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. And based on what he heard from his classmates, they did discuss the creature last Term.

Shame he wasn’t there when the topic was up.

Ethan impatiently swatted the loose parchment away from his face as he watched Flamsteed’s patronus dash off. They really should have discussed this earlier. If his theory about the ‘Winter’s Wrath’ being replicated somewhere inside the school, or even outside, then they ought to start looking now. But then, the boy’s mind was somewhere else at this point. So what if they find the runes? What are they to do? The boy’s gaze then shifted towards Professor Botros, as his brain made probable solutions with the runes.

What was going on? Was AJ so immersed in her readings that she missed something big? What was a chort exactly? They found a secret passageway and apparently the DADA professor was needed for this. Hmmm.... "What is a chort exactly? Maybe she started her 'it's too cold to think so I will just daydream' thing again. It was popping up more and more recently and she couldn't help it.

"Are we going on an adventure?" If that was the case she wanted to be able to take part in it. "I volunteer to go outside and help." Oh yes. She had been wanting to do that ever since the last meeting in the library. They only let some of the older students go, and that was entirely unfair.

Wait, wait, wait.

She starts skimming Lottie's book for a second and when she looks up from it people are crying and professors are being summoned. Guess there was another lead? The snake lapsed in silence listening to everyone giving their thoughts. They all made sense but there were so many theories.

Chorts, though!

The scary, fury creatures that are born of flames or something.

Hearing someone call her name, she looked around searching for the source. Oh, it was Ethan. "We weren't able to get a clear view of what attacked us," She answered remembering that dark day. "It was very fast," And chorts were known to be fast weren't they?

"Maybe there would be some way to lure the creature out if it was indeed here," Did not Romanos know of something. Being the one who taught them about it last year. Though would it be a good idea to confront such creature.

Hayden did find a little bit about chorts in her book. Nothing extensive, and nothing she couldn't have learned from listening to the conversation. Speaking of which, interesting things seemed to be happening elsewhere and Hayden wanted to be part of it. So she scooted her chair closer to the group of people discussing chorts and runes and things. Had it been a chort that had attacked that group of students? Was there a chort outside the school? From what she'd learned, she hoped not. It sounded terrifying.

And now someone was suggesting they lure it out? That plan sounded brilliant except for all the horrible flaws. For one, it sounded extremely dangerous. Also, how exactly would they do that? Or to where would they lure it? Hayden stayed silent but looked to the professors, specifically Romanos at the moment, to offer some input of their own.