Okaaaaaaaaay so he'd butchered the last one, yeah yeah, no puns intended or anything. Davie was mentally berating himself for letting his arrow fly too quickly, and fly over the left side of the target. What he needed to was focus, and keep both his eyes on the prize. He had his arrow ready, he was confident he could make it this time, and he was starting to fall into a rhythm with his legs. He wasn't running very quickly, er, he wasn't really even running at all, but he did know where he was going now. And he did know where he wanted his arrow to land.

Again turning his bow on the side, Davie focused on the center of the target and let his arrow fly. ZOOOOOOOOOM---- THWACK!

"Nailed it!" he cheered himself, picking up speed and feeling his tail flick happily as he cantered around the second target and on to the third. WIN WIN WIN!

He still had two more arrows...but alas, since Professor Centaur said they had to have no less than 4 successful shots, did that mean he had now failed the ritual? Great bummer if it was. When he was just finally getting the hang of using a bow and arrow.

Anyway, it was his turn again.

Owen forced his legs to stay planted on the ground as he quickly drew back the arrow and fired!

... and HIT!

Again? Whoaaaaa.

Another bull's eye too? Why, he was VERY lucky it seemed.

Char took.... a long time finding the right piece of wood. She tried one and it snapped almost instantly as if it had decided NOPE NOT FOR YOU CHARLOTTE KETTLEBURN.

The thing WAS she absolutely was EXCITED ABOUT THIS. Char LOVED archery, it was so FUN to shoot things at things! It was her favourite thing to do when visiting her uncles AND she'd got to make a bow before with uncle Keir, not a long bow but STILL! Eventually she chose a length of wood made from Laurel, it being the one, after so many other bits had been taken from the pile, that her hand kept coming back to.

Confidently, she took the wood and found a spot to work on it, more than happy to work at her own pace. She stood it up and looked UP at the top end of it. It was so much bigger than her. Holding it carefully, reaching as high as she could, Char pressed against the wood until it swiveled just so. She marked the wood with her wand and then started on diffindoing the excess length. This she took her time with too. Most of her classmates were already SHOOTING their arrows from bows, but she was still making hers. It was hard WORK. And also, if she didn't make it smoothly then it wouldn't aim as well, right? Also she used her wand to drill holes at the ends thinking that'd be the easiest way to tie the caterpillar silk, probably!

Eventually she had the bow cut and shaped. Her bow? It was getting a name. She carved that in with Intaglio after watching to see how the spell was done and practicing it on some off cuts. She was doing the carving before stringing the bow just because she thought it'd be easier.

I. F. R. I. T.

Her bow was called Ifrit.

Moving on to stringing it, Char took the Caterpillar silk and carefully attached it, threading it through and tieing it at one end, and then carefully resting that end against the ground and bending the wood to string the other end. It took a few goes that was for sure.

But done now! And she could go shoot it yes? Maybe? EEEEP! She wanted to impress the centaurs! LOOK THERE WERE MORE OF THEM!

Last one.

Owen was down to his last arrow. He was fairly sure that his bow was going to be broken and burned because even if he would be able to hit the target this time he would still have less than 4 shots and apparently that was the cut off. If Professor Centaur was nice enough then probably there would be another ritual next year. So for now, he was going to make his time with Woody, the bow, count.

"Here it goes, Woody." The young Hufflepuff whispered to his bow as he readied it and the last arrow. Target sighted, preparing to fire, aiming... FIRE!

Aaaaaand yep. Missed. Owen shrugged lightly.

AND NOW SHE WAS A CENTAUR! Okay not really but she looked like one! Char beamed at professor York and then tried this whole moving thing.

Much like a newborn foal, she was shaky, and honestly she wanted to get the hang of this before she tried shooting at the targets. Charlotte walked around a bit, trying to find a rhythm.

Her flanks were LOVELY weren't they?

The humans were missing their targets left and right. As quiet as the group of them was now being, it amused a great many of them to see the humans try to hard at this with little success. One of the arrows from a smaller human dug into the tree next to one of the centaur's heads. He hadn't flinched once, but he did dislodge the arrow from the tree and drop hold it tightly in his grasp.

"Are they even trying to aim?" he asked softly.

"That one is young. Do not be too harsh..." the centaur at the head of the group replied just as calmly.

Were the young humans almost done? Would anymore of the rampant arrows nearly miss the centaurs as the humans kept attempting to shoot one right to the center of a target? The group mumbled to themselves, discussing the form of some of the students who did make bull's-eyes. There were a few humans who seemed to gain control of their hooves more quickly than others; this did not go unnoticed by the centaurs, either.

"Look how that one trots-"

"And that one! He tripped-"

But could the students hear them? The centaur at the head of the group merely watched in silence, waiting for Thereos to finish the ceremony exactly how he should.

Was it bad that what she wanted to do was take off cantering? Like really, wasn't this being almost!centaur thing (she wasn't going to think of it as half horse) far more exciting than shooting a bow and arrow?



Okay she couldn't resist! Charlotte took off, not going FAR but going around the general area and it took a bit and a few stumbles happened but she found her legs ALL FOUR OF THEM wasn't this so fun?

... O_O

Was that whispering she heard?

Paulina was confused. She heard voices, but she had no idea where they were coming from because she was so busy focusing on her four legs and trying to keep them moving properly. If she had to bet any money though, they were Centaurs because students weren't allowed inside the Forbidden Forest. Everyone knew that.

This place was a little spooky. Even during the day.

Readying her bow, Paulina furrowed her brows in concentration. She already failed the 'test', but she was still going to try and make ONE more hit. At least she had a bulls-eye to her name; that still made her feel proud.

THWACK!

Paulina let the arrow fly...and watched it hit the target.

"YES!"

....... W h u t?

YES THAT'S RIGHT, Zander Adair was STILL looking over at the forrest this ENTIRE time!!!

And what's that? People thought that was useless? That nothing would emerge from the forrest? That he was just being paranoid? WELL GUESS WHAT FOLKS, Zander Adair was RIGHT. Things WERE emerging from the forrest.

... wait.

Things were emerging from the FORBIDDEN FORREST and he was stuck in a CENTAUR'S BODY THAT HE DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO CONTROL?????

Merlin. This was about to be the messiest and most failed attempt at a rescue effort. Zander Adair blamed Theroes.

Except... Centaurs? There were more of them? Sweet Merlin. Back to the targets then. Sigh. And he thought he was finally gonna be the hero. Life was rough. And these stupid arrows wouldn't hit the stupid target. This was pointless.

Another miss. Surprise.

Angel was totally enjoying this because she was slowly but surely getting ready for the last arrow, she was hoping that things would go better than the last one that had just gone a little bit off course.

Angel was now hoping that things would go great as she walked confidently towards the final target, Angel hoped that she could hit this target. Angel aimed the arrow towards the target and then let go

*Hit*

Angel smiled as she got a bulls-eye, that would be interesting and now she was hoping that she could go back to her normal legs because these were hard to control.

.... Alright so finally at the last target. After this they were done, yeah? Well they'd have to break the bows or whatever that sacred ritual was. Y'know, the worst part about this entire lesson is that Zander normally LOVED this class. So the fact that he was so against the whole thing was awful for him. He genuinely wanted to be super into it... But unfortunately he was still distracted.

And uh, were the centaurs mocking Rooney? Poor kid. Granted, the Ravenclaw was full of sass and probably deserved to be taken down a peg... But man, poor kid. Zander felt for him.

As for the target? He lazily shot another arrow. It wasn't fair that they were supposed to do well on these things. Not his fault that he still didn't know how to walk with all these legs. It was kinda uncomfortable, y'know?

Also, question. When their legs were transfigured back to normal... Would they still be wearing pants? Because this is the real lesson here.

Ahem.

Also, if it wasn't already clear... He missed. Again. For the fifth time.

Were they done now?

Culloden was too sweet, and Soph gave him a biiiig smile at his kind words AND the successful transfiguration. "Thanks, sir." She wasn't PRETTY like this, but... as pretty as a centaur could get, probably.

The moment she tried to take a step away from him, she just about fell over, her back legs throwing off her balance and making her stumble forward. But she recovered okay, taking slow movements forward now, her gaze directed back at her back half as she watched each and every step her new hooves took in the back.

The front ones were fine and dandy, but the back ones? Super weird. She didn't like it.

Still stumbling a little as she walked, Soph ignored Thereos' instructions - at least, she didn't stop her attempts to get used to this new form, but she still listened to him - and galloped around in a large circle in an attempt to get the feel for it. Her instincts kicked in soon enough and after a little bit of practice and observing her own hooves' movements, she wasn't stumbling anymore. It still felt really, really weird, and she was super skeptical of her back end. It was going to BETRAY HER THIS WHOLE TIME, WASN'T IT?

But what? Oh no. Now they had to move through a target range on their VERY NEW hooves, shoot for the FIRST TIME EVER with their new bows, and try to hit the targets??? Weren't they being set up to fail here? Sweet Merlin. This was ABSURB.

Still kind of cool, though, and Soph was smiling despite her irritation. They were gonna get to do ALL THE COOL THINGS. WOOP WOOP. When it was finally her turn, she slung the rabbit skin satchel over her body and carefully picked out her five arrows.

And then it was time to rock 'n roll.

Starting forward carefully - and slowly, mind you, because SLOW AND STEADY WON THE RACE or something - Soph lined up her first arrow with her bow, knowing generally how to do that, and puuuulled back, giving a squint at the first target as she stumbled past it and released--

...Whaaaat. The arrow smacked into the far corner of the target and Soph GAPED, almost forgetting to keep going because she was so pleasantly surprised that she'd gotten it. MAYBE SHE WOULD HAVE MADE A GOOD CENTAUR AFTER ALL.

With his newfound confidence, Caleb wandered over to the next target - forgetting for just a second that he was a centaur with four legs, causing him to stumble a bit. But he made it to the second target in one piece, and immediately positioned himself and got his bow ready to go, took a deep breath and...

SWOOSH.

Whoops. RIGHT over the top of the target. Perhaps the fact that he'd made contact had given him just a bit TOO much confidence...

She had got a bit carried away trying out her legs and rushing around and cantering and OH THIS WAS SO EXCITING!!!!

But probably she should start using Ifrit and try to get those targets, right! She lined up and then took the satchel, loading in five arrows. READY!!! Charlotte took one out and started the run toward the targets. Thankfully she'd been practicing with these legs so even though she was a bit shaky, comparatively it wasn't so bad, especially if she didn't overthink what her feet did. Char smoothly brought her arrow to bear, and lined up that first target.... and smoothly let go.... and hit the target dead centre! Archery was SO AWESOME.

.... but now she had to weave back the other way for the next one. She lost a bit of her momentum in the weaving but brought her next arrow to bear...

Paulina was nearly there!

Only one more target to go and she would be finished the activity. She was really looking forward to returning to her regular form, so this was rather exciting though she HAD to admit that shooting at targets was pretty fun. She would just rather do it on her own two feet was all.

Maybe she could try it out at home during the summer. She'd be extra careful and use blunt arrows.

Removing her last bow from the satchel, Paulina placed it against the bow. At that moment she stumbled yet AGAIN and thought she would loose the arrow into the trees, but somehow she managed to hold on to it. Thank Merlin.

Reaching the target, she let it go soaring. Another satisfying THWACK! meant that she had made a hit. Paulina was very happy even though she had hit off center.

Once she got over the shock of actually MAKING HER FIRST ONE ON THE FIRST TRY, Soph swerved around to the next one, feeling ELECTRIFIED. WHAT IF SHE GOT FOUR HITS? WOULD SHE BE INDUCTED INTO THE CENTAUR FAMILY?

THIS WAS SO FUN. AND EVERYONE WAS WATCHING HER BE A SUPER COOL PSEUDO CENTAUR.

Readjusting The Aspen Adventurer in her hands, Soph tugged the next arrow from the satchel and situated it against the bow, pulling back and squinting one eye shut, aiming with precising and her tongue peeking out from the corner of her mouth in concentration--

As she let go, her back hooves stumbled and threw her balance off, making her jolt sideways, and the arrow shot many feet away from the intended target, not even CLOSE.

Sigh. Betrayed by the booty.

... but she still hit the target, just not dead centre. Somewhere off to one side. It was the weaving and losing momentum that did it, and not accounting for it properly. Seeing it hit she stumbled a little bit but righted herself with a weird little coltish four-legged skip. This would be way easier if they could just shoot the targets and not worry about making the legs work! Though when she overthought it that was when she stumbled sooooo maybe just focusing on the bow and arrow and target....

After missing her second shot, Sophie had to get the last THREE IN A ROW to be a super cool centaur and PROTECT HER BOW. If she missed all of these, they were gonna BREAK HER BOW AND BURN IT AND NEVER LET HER SEE IT AGAIN. After ALL HER HARD WORK. But would they really do that? Were they really going to destroy the bows like they would if they were real centaurs? They COULDN'T, not after they'd done all this hard work in making them! So she tried not to let that deter her or shake her confidence.

No, she was gonna DO THIS THING. No pressure. Just gonna let the arrow flyyyyy.

Regaining her balance and swerving around to the next target in a steady trot, Soph pulled out the next arrow from her satchel, her eyebrows narrowing in determination. No pressure, no pressure, no pressure...

Lining up the arrow against her bow, Soph took a deep, cleansing breath, pulled back, and let the arrow soar toward the target as she galloped past it, and-- DIRECT HIT. WHAAAAT.

SHE WAS GONNA BE A DYNAMITE CENTAUR AFTER ALL.

Ok, Caleb's goal was to NOT miss any more targets. Not bullseyes, because he wasn't an amazing archer JUST yet, but he could at LEAST make contact with the target on the rest of them, right? Right. He could do it.

Trotting - yes, he was trotting, that was a horse thing and totally appropriate in this context - he made his way to the third target. He pulled back on the arrow and spent a few more seconds than he had on the last target so he could really take a few deep breaths and concentrate. He released and...THUMP! Contact!

This time he'd hit the very bottom of the target. ALMOST missing, but making contact. That was what was important!

This was the COOLEST ACTIVITY EVER. Soph didn't even CARE anymore why they were doing this. It didn't matter how they talked Thereos into teaching this lesson nor what the reason even was for him being talked into it, but it was just cool to experience this in general. Archery was the BEST. Why didn't they have an archery club or anything? That would've been just as cool of a sport as Gobstones and was safer than Quidditch, probably. She wasn't sure she always wanted to be a centaur while doing it, but it totally set the mood, didn't it? Made her feel empowered, like she was BORN TO BE AN ARCHER.

Fueled by this thought and adrenaline coursing through her veins, Soph got her next arrow ready, beaming all the while triumphantly from her last bullseye, and got her arrow lined up and pulled back as she galloped around and toward the next target, squinting an eye closed again in concentration to aim her shot with precision--

But one of her front hooves gave out as she stumbled over a rock, causing her aim to fall downward, and the arrow ended up shooting into the ground below, sticking up and causing her to stumble over THAT as she tried to trot around it to no avail.

SHE WAS A TRAINWRECK. AND MISSED COMPLETELY.

...They REALLY weren't going to destroy her bow, right? Now that she had no chance at four? THEY WEREN'T GOING TO TAKE IT FROM HER, WERE THEY?

Charlotte focused on the targets and swung toward the third one, bow up, arrow nocked, and let the arrow fly!

Again it was a hit, but not in the bullseye which frustrated her to no end. This moving while shooting thing wasn't as simple as it seemed! ONLY TWO MORE TO GO.

She weaved back toward the next target. CHAR WANTED TO IMPRESS THE CENTAURS!

So even though most of the centaur's lecture had flown straight over Davie's head, at least now most of his arrows were flying straight and true. No more of this letting them go too early nonsense, nor this nearly running into targets madness. He was starting to become a real Firenze with this bow. (geddit? Hehehe)

Galloping toward the third target, David did his best to aim and let his arrow fly. He was hoping for another bullseye, but two in a row WOULD be too lucky for him. The satisfying THUD of the arrow hitting somewhere on the target would just have to do then. He had to move on to the next one in line!

Onto the fifth target Sophie went, quick to pull the final arrow from her satchel to hide her fluster over having almost DIED and nearly fallen in front of everyone. No one saw that, right? Yes? Just everyone in the whole class? All right then. Ahem.

Please hold the snickering, Zander and Culloden.

Lining up her final arrow with her bow, Soph took a moment to regain her balance well as she trotted along steadily, then hesitated no further and pulled back and let the arrow fly--

AND IT HIT! Not the center, but she STILL GOT ONE. That made THREE WHOLE GOOD SHOTS. Two bad, but ahem. What did it matter for a girl who had never shot an arrow with a bow before, let alone gallop around as a centaur?!

Beaming quite proudly with her success, Soph looped back around and trotted back to the front of the line, passing off the satchel to the next person in line, and moved off to the side, hugging her bow to her chest protectively.

They weren't taking it from her.

Alright, Caleb was in the home stretch. Which meant he got his old legs back soon! WOO HOO! Happily making his way to the next target, he pulled out an arrow from the satchel, positioned it firmly in his bow, and pulled back. He took a few deep breaths, and then let go of the arrow...

WHOOSH!

He watched as it went flying, flying, flying...right past the target. By about a foot. WOW. That was a terrible shot! So much for not missing any more targets...

She was getting the hang of this right? Definitely! And that was the moment where Char stumbled again, juuust as she had nocked an arrow and so it went wide. WIIIIIDE. Didn't get near the target at ALL.

Nobody saw that right? Errrk.



ONLY ONE LEFT NOW AND SHE HAD TO GET IT.