After his disappointing last attempt, Caleb was not very happy. He just wanted to be over and done with this silly course now - was he ever going to need to fire a bow and arrow as an Auror? Nope. They had wands for a reason.

Stepping up to the last one, he sighed and picked up his bow, put the arrow in and pulled back...and without much thought, released.

He almost walked away right after firing, but he was glad he didn't. He watched the air soar through the air, with much more surprising speed than Caleb had anticipated, and SWOOP. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE.

HE'D GOTTEN A BULLEYE!

"YES!" he exclaimed, jumping up and, once again, forgetting he had centaur legs. When he landed on his hooves, he stumbled and then...fell down.

And he couldn't get up. TOO MANY LEGS. HE COULDN'T DO THIS.

But he was not asking for help. Nope. He could do it...he could do it. Ok, one hoof on the ground...and now the other...

Galloping at a steady pace, Davie rounded the corner toward the fourth target. He already had his bow and arrow ready, and was getting good at knowing when to let his arrow loose. Problem was, he was still just a little too eager to let it loose... and so his fourth arrow narrowly missed the target, flying just a smidgen too high.

Dangit! THE NEXT ONE he'd have. For sure.

Theroes could say he was impressed with the manner in which their arrows flew, but that would be a lie. While some fared better than others, the overall result was as predicted.

Quietly observing the humans while slowly moving back and forth across the start line, Thereos noted the presence of his kin but did not acknowledge them. Not in a way that would be noticeable to human eyes at least.

The centaur cast his gaze skyward and traced with his line of sight the past, present, and future path of the sun. "Taurus-Scorpio are intercepted," he announced with both his strong arms raised towards the heavens. "Final shots for those who have not completed the task yet. Those of you who have, you may say your farewells to your bows before discarding them just over there," he continued whilst motioning towards a large circle of stones.

OOC: this activity will officially close in 4-5 hours time.

Whoa what?!

Sa-say goodbye? She wasn't going to be allowed to keep 'Silent Whispers'?

Hady crinkled her nose slightly in mild annoyance. Sure this had only been a seminar to get to learn about and understand the ways of the Centaurs more closely she had knew that. Why have them make bows and go through all the trouble to name one and shape them as well as be turned into a centaur, complete this course and then take the bow from them! She wasn't happy about this. It wasn't fair but life never was fair that much she knew.

It was with great reluctance that she slowly made her over towards the large circle of stones. Before she could change her mind she knelt down the best she could given her current state of centaur legs and set her bow down gently. Without a sound she rose to her full height and turned away. She wouldn't voice her opinion on how unfair she thought this was (though she did understand why it was this way) nor did she make a fuss. Neither was the Hady Lynch way.

Uh... whut?

They had to leave their bows behind. Maaaan, that sucked big time! With reluctance Adi went over to the stones to set his bow down. "Bye, Silver Dragon. You were fun to work with.'' Yep, yep. Maybe someday he could make another bow? He knew how to do so now. He now set off towards Professor Bee again. She would help him get his awesome two feet again.

Once he was fully Aditya Rehman again, the Hufflepuff stood off at a corner, bouncing on his feet as he waited for Benny. Such a slow centaur the bestie made. Hehe.

They couldn't keep their bow? Boo.

Like it or not, Ava had to give her bow back. Sigh. Couldn't she keep it? She really enjoyed the archery... but not really as a centaur. Seriously, it's not easy having four legs and a tail. She was still curious why Thereos wanted them to transform as centaur. Soooooo curious. Did he want to humiliate them?

But first, time to say goodbye to her bow. "It's really nice to work with you, Blue Bird." Then she set her bow down and joined the other students who had finished the activity. Now, could she went back into normal again?

"Cease your efforts!" he commanded while raising his right hand.

Rearing his powerful front legs, Thereos looked towards the Hogwarts professors with an expectant gaze. "If you will be so kind as to return your students to their proper forms."

The centaur then walked over to the small pile of bows and waited. None of them had passed the rite of passage but he had not expected any of them to. But he did expect them to follow and respect the customs outlined previously.

"That will be all for today. Your professors will return your legs and then you may leave after depositing your bow."

They had to burn their bows? That was unexpected, but he wasn't too upset about it. What would he do with a bow anyway? Keep it in his room? That seemed a little dangerous. Plus, they got to have a big fire which was pretty cool. Could they roast marshmallows?

Olly dramatically threw his bow into the fire. Goodbye, it would be missed. Kind of. Not really. Olly was not particularly attached to it. When that was done he headed toward one of the professors. Whichever one had the shortest line would do. As fun as it had been to be a centaur for an hour or so, he was ready to get his human legs back. It was a lot easier to walk with two legs than with four.

"Thanks for letting us try out your ceremony," he called to the centaur professor. Cue grin.

...of course none of them passed the test or whatever it was called. It was a VERY hard thing to adjust to new legs PLUS aiming PLUS letting the arrow go at the right moment. Nah, he was surprised anyone got it at all.

But, it was time to finish. Cosgrach brought out his wand again as Thereos asked them to transfigure the students back. As he had been sitting at the far end of the 'class' (more like stones arranges to resemble a class) he would also keep an eye on those clever ones who didn't want to turn back just yet.

They would not try that, would they?

As the first student came, Cosgrach transfigured them back and even held out his hand for them to hold onto if they couldn't adjust to being back on two legs so quickly.

OOC: You can assume that he transfigured your character back without waiting for me to acknowledge your post.

As Davie rounded the bend for the last target, he heard Thereos calling for the lesson to end and for everyone to turn in their bows. But he wasn't done yet! He was so close to getting a passing score, passing for him, anyway, and now he did it as he neared the fifth and final target.

Letting his arrow fly just as the centaur called time, Davie watched with amazement as he again got a bullseye. Awww, man, why did they have to burn the thing that had taken them so long to make? He'd even NAMED his bow, for Circe's sake. This was pointless! Stupid! Not fair!

Davie frowned deeply as he came to a stop from his arrow run and fell in line with the others getting un-transfigured. What a bummer end to an otherwise useful lesson. Once he had his two legs back, the first year glumly tossed his bow on the pile with the others. If he had known how to do the duplication spell, so he could keep the original and the centaurs could have the copy, he would. But he wasn't that advanced yet, so he simply picked up his bag and made his way back up to the castle, kicking a rock ahead of him as he went. Stupid centaurs. Who thought they were great anyway? Unicorns were better. Even baby unicorns, and they didn't even LIKE boys.

After having a Professor return him to his glorious two legs, Rooney pranced around on them, announcing loudly that he had missed them ever so much and would never again trade them for something worse. Of course, he flushed red at the fact he had inadvertedly and unintentionally insulted those with different legs and just shut up straight away. In his head though, he was loving his legs and his feet and everything about his human form. HIS OWN HUMAN FORM.

But ugh. They had to get rid of their bows because they were just SO bad at being Centaurs. It wasn't like anyone hadn't expected them to be bad though, because they were not actual Centaurs. THEY WERE CHILDREN.

Traipsing closely behind Davie, Roo placed his bow onto the pile they were supposed to with every ounce of grump ever in the world. He had worked hard on his bow, harder than he had physically worked on building something in a long time. This was unfair because the bow was rightfully his, but he didn't want to get himself into a big problem with Thereos or one of the Professors present, so he would just ditch it. Without saying goodbye, because that would just be too hard. He'd say goodbye from afar.

Goodbye, lovely friend.

Goodbye.

Having watched the students participate in the lesson, and getting used to their brief change of legs, had been a lot of fun. And Beatrice had found herself relaxing in Thereos' company. So, when called a cease to the lesson, and looked upon the teaching staff to remove the effects of the spell, she had been surprised that it was already the end of the lesson.

Heading up to the first person in line, Beatrice looked down upon the centaur legs. "Homini legs," she said, aiming a swish of her wand towards their legs. And where the four centaur legs had been just a second before, there were now the student's regular human legs.

OOC: Please use this post for your character returning to human-leg form if you wish Professor York to be the one reversing the spell

So he had completed the task and made his way back towards Asi, the two of them watching perched on centaur legs as the rest of the students went thrpough the trial. Alas no one had managed to make four out of the five gials but then Benny figured that wasn't going to happen. It was tough managing too many things at once even for him used to not being his complete self. And then Thereos was saying something about astrological signs bringing the Gryffindor's attention back to him.

Say what?!

They were giving up on their bows. Adi didn't seem anymore expectat or willing than he was but he followed shortly after his best friend to the pile. Bye Southern Sun, he mused to himself placing it away before cantering his way back to Professor York. Time to be human again and for oince he was just a tad reluctant for the change back so soon.

"Thanks Professor."

"You are welcome, little one. May Jupiter rise in your favor."
"And I thank you," the centaur replied. For being respectful and honoring the traditions.

With all the bows in a pile, Thereos retrieved two ebony stones and circles the pyre of bows thrice counterclockwise. Having done so, he raised both stones to the heavens before striking them three times as well. So strong were his movements that sparks shot from the stones and on to the bows that then easily caught fire. Soon, there was a roaring fire that could be seen easily from the tower windows at Hogwarts.

Thereos turned his gaze towards the forest and his kin, offering nothing more than an acknowledging gaze before returning his attention to the fire.