First Task: Adalrik

Adalrik had been evaporated from his spot on the grounds of Hogwarts, where there had been many people waiting and watching, to an empty land without any given notice about his departure. A large volcano sat in the distance, smoking a deep black smoke. The plains were empty, void of any life, and the only thing that could be seen was that volcano.

A voice, similar to Eirina's but not quite the same, echoed around Adalrik, "You shall find and retrieve this container," an image of the container surfaced in a misty smoke in front of him, "and, do care to remember, not every task is as it seems. You will be tested on many things. Good luck."

Everything faded away, and now Adalrik was left with himself and the landscaping.

Adalrik stood among the other champions in the training ground, his mind not on the cheers and crowds around him but on his goal. This was the first task, his first chance to succeed. He chanced a glance over at his competitors and scoffed. The puny Beauxbaton boy looked to be shaking and the little kitten to his left was putting on a brave face. He had no worries for first place today.

He began to get impatient standing around. What was the hold up? He was about to say something when suddenly the scene around him was gone. In an instant he was transported to somewhere more hostile and unforgiving. Surprise did not come to Adalrik, he had assumed something like this to happen since the training ground held no sign of obstacles.

Before dashing off into the task he took a moment to look around. He was utterly alone in a bleak landscape. Good, it would only be a pester to have to deal with the others incompetence. Before him the ground was cracking and dry with no sign of life and far in the distance a giant volcano loomed. Thick billowing smoke the color of the night sky was filling the air, racing up and out, engulfing the sky. No bright flashes of pyroclastics could be seen yet; that was a good sign. If he could get the egg and get out before the real eruption started things would be much easier. He stared at the mountain in the distance, trying to ascertain how long he had before it was too late.

Well, he wouldn't get anything done standing here. With a determined glint in his blue eyes Adarlik set off at a run, his feet pounding the dry ground and sending up clouds of dust. As he ran he focused on a bubble of air forming around his nose and mouth; the bubble head charm. If that black smoke started to cover him he would need to be able to breathe freely and this spell would allow that. Soon a thin pocket of fresh air was in place over his face and Adalrik picked up his pace, aiming for the base of the volcano. All the years of training his body, running every day, were paying off as crossed the distance to the spewing mountain in little time.

((You threw a volcano at geology major; I'll try not to turn this into a scientific paper =p ))

(AHAHAH I didn't even think of that XDDD WELP then don't expect me to be right :P)

The ground was starting to shake and the mountain starting giving off a thicker smoke, somehow managing a deeper color than the black it was before. A few spits of lava dripping out of the mouth of the volcano, slowly scampering down the hillside.

When Adarlik reached the base of the volcano he slowed his pace and changed direction to circle it. He was looking for the least steep approach. If he was going to be running up the side of the hill he was going to need to converse his strength; a little extra time running along the bottom would save him time if he found a more gentle slope. His idea paid off and he chose a path up the volcano that looked less intimidating than the others.

As he was making his way up the ground beneath him began to shake. Adarlik gripped the rocks under him with his hands, holding on steady. The muscles bulged in his arms as they tensed, bracing him. The first shock calmed and the ground was no longer rolling but just gently rumbling from somewhere deep below the surface. He knew more would be coming and that they would be worse than this first wave. Gritting his teeth he pushed onward, eyes forward.

A bright spot of red caught his attention quickly. Lava was starting to pour out of the crater at the top of the volcano. The flow was viscous; slow moving. Adalrik was relieved, it was a sign that bursts of flaming earth and rock would not be shooting out of the crater anytime soon. But then again, you never knew.

Adalrk looked around again as he climbed, searching for the route that would avoid the lava's path. He spotted a clear patch ahead of him and made his way over. Just in case, though, Adarlik gripped his wand in his hand and performed the flame freezing charm on himself. While there was no fire visible, the lava was merely molten rock and that was close enough to fire, right? Adalrik wasn't sure that the spell worked that way but he tried just the same. Heat was heat, and anything to stop his skin of blistering and boiling if the lava touched him was helpful.

Still climbing the slope at a fast pace, Adalrik kept his eyes open for any glint of gold of silver that would alert the egg to him. While he figured it would be near the top of the volcano, or even inside it, he wanted to make sure he didn't miss it.

The lava started to pour out faster and faster, but there was no sight of the object that Adalrik would be looking for.

The smoke was getting thicker as Adarlik reached the peak of the volcano. He could barely see in the black fumes that encased him, shrouding the world in darkness.  The heat was intense up here as well. He could feel the sweat pouring down his body in sheets, drenching his shirt and tickling its way down his neck. He ignored his discomfort and instead focused on the task at hand.

He had not yet caught a glimpse of the object he was searching for. It must be somewhere inside the volcano. Leave to so called responsible adults to be putting the students into as much danger as they possibly could. He wouldn't be surprised if one or both of the other champions didn't make it out of this task unscathed. Adarlik, on the other hand, wasn't worried about his safety. So it was dangerous, so what. He had been in dangerous situations before and he always came out on top. This was no different. Simple and straight forward; avoid the danger, succeed. No thinking outside of the box necessary.

The lava flowing from the crater was nearly everywhere now; Adalrik was standing in one increasingly small patch of bare rock. He had to do something to halt its progress and allow him to get closer to the edge. Spells flew through his mind, each worthless. Aguamenti? No, simple water wouldn't help here, the most it would do was create more steam. Then it hit him suddenly and he growled at his own slow thinking.

“Glacius,” Adarlik shouted, pointing his wand directly at the moving molten liquid in front of him. The air suddenly turned bitter cold and the sweat on Adalrik's body turned to a frost that cooled him. The lava in his path was overtaken by the air and froze solid, turning dark like the solid rock of the mountain. It created a pathway for Adalrik to walk on, leading him straight to the edge of the crater. He leaned forward, looking down into the throat of the volcano, searching for anything that would give him a clue.

(just a warning to be careful about how much detail you put, I may have to overrule some and I don't want that to mess anything up! Something more along the lines of casting a spell and waiting for my reply, because I tend to add tricks to things)

In the volcano the lava could be seen, bubbling, and popping up for only a second was a glint of metal, somehow unaffected by the lava, before it disappeared. The heat could be felt, as if it was melting skin, even though it was far within the volcano, only spurts had come up every now and then.

((Whoops, sorry! I get carried away sometimes.))

The smoke pouring from the crater where he stood was covering Adarlik in a a fine layer of soot. He absently ran his hand over his face, trying to clear his vision, a left a gray streak of dirt. It was too hard to see. His eyes were starting to blur from over exertion as he stared into the churning black smoke. As hard as he thought Adalrik couldn't think of what to do to see better. Even if he knew a spell to help it would not come easy to him. He would just have to deal with it for now, and squint until his eyes watered.

Was that a glint of gold that he saw far below him? Adalrik couldn't be certain due to the state of the air and his eyes, but it looked like it for a minute, before disappearing into the sea of magma. Adalrik almost shouted out his rage at the egg being immersed in the molten rock, “This is bullshit!”

Adalrik continued to stare into the crater as he thought. His blood was running nearly as hot as the air around him. He knew the task was going to be hard, but this was ridiculous. Who in their right mind would ever find themselves in this situation. He thought that the professors were going to try to prepare them for real life and test their skills in a setting that might actually happen. But no, here was a freaking volcano. His teeth mashed against each other and his hands turned to fists as the anger grew inside him.

This wasn't the time to lose focus though, and Adalrik tried his best to reign his temper in. He could use the adrenaline it had given him, though. His hand still help tight in his grasp he yelled out , “Accio egg,” in hopes that it would rush up out of the pit and into his hands. Otherwise, things were going to get a lot hotter.

(no don't worry about it! you haven't experienced a tournament yet :P)

The egg didn't listen, only floated once more above and below the lava, as if it were taunting Adalrik.

The egg remained stubbornly in the lava, rising in falling in waves. Adalrik let out a guttural growl into the hiss air around him. Why hadn't that worked? He wasn't the brightest student but he knew that it should have. The egg must have been enchanted against the accio charm.  

Where they really trying to get him to jump into the pool of lava? Adalrik was a good swimmer, and in fact he would rather be doing something physical to win this task than any fancy spell casting, but the heat rising up from the crater was giving him second thoughts. He had performed the Flame Freezing Charm on himself earlier, but he didn't know enough about the charm to know if it covered lava as well as fire. Adalrik cursed himself for never paying much attention in his classes as he paced the crater's edge.

Another spell then, maybe. He had to be quick since he was wasting time now. He racked his brain and came up with a spell he has used a few times before during his physical training. Maybe this spell would help bring the egg to him, and if not the rope that he would tether to the egg could be used to pull himself closer to it hopefully without submerging him in the lava.

For the second time Adalrik pointed his want at the egg, this time yelling, “Carpe Retractum.” He kept his eyes on the tip of his wand, waiting to see the thin fishing line like rope shoot out and wrap itself around the egg.

The rope was fished in, but never caught the egg, even as it dangled right around it. Instead, a giant bubble formed and popped, sending bits of lava up toward Adalrik's flesh.

Adalrik watched as the rope hovered above the egg, never touching it. So that's how it was going to be. Fine. No more wand waving from him, it was time to get serious.

As he was watching a large bubble formed and popped, spewing flaming lava up towards him. Adalrik dove to get out of its path but still some splattered on his skin. It hissed and burned, but was not nearly as bad as he had expected. Perhaps his flame freezing charm did protect him. That was good, because what he did next would have surely done him in if the charm was useless.

Without a second thought Adalrik backed up a distance then sprinted towards the edge of the crater. He felt it as his feet left the ground behind him. He was soaring through the air, nothing to any side of him The black smoke surrounded him but gave no resistance to his downward motion. Gracefully Adalrik's large muscled body turned into a dive, his arms out to break the impact of the lava when he reached it.

The heat around him was terrible and he was dreading the moment his body reached the red hot sea he was so quickly falling towards. It didn't matter now though; he had made his decision and he had no choice but to stick with it. If he was going to win this thing he needed to be determined and show no fear.

Adalrik soared through and into the volcano, with a flash of heat that turned to ice within moments. Now, Adalrik was located in an icey landscape, in front of him was a block of ice that contained the container that he was searching for, and just behind that was a large, large manticore.

Just as Adalrik was bracing himself to plummet into the scorching liquid it changed before his eyes. No longer was the heat burning his lungs and searing his eyes but a chill entered his body, freezing him. The inside of the volcano had turned into a wonderland of ice, sparkling and glinting from an unseen light.

He thumped onto the ground, sliding a bit on the ice as he tried to stand up. Looking around Adalrik gained his bearings. Right in front of him was his goal; the egg was ensconced in a pillar of ice, safe and unreachable. That wasn't a problem for him, a simple flame conjuring spell should do the trick. But before he could conjure anything Adalrik saw the beast beyond the pillar.

“What the hell?” He swore, fists at his side. Adalrik had never seen a creature like this before, never having taken any magical creature classes. The thing loomed ahead of him, the strong body of a lion armed with the deadly tail of a scorpion. Its face, however, resembled a human's and even had the glint of intelligence in its eyes. Adalrik, however, didn't have time to deal with this beast. It was in his way and his rage at the increasingly annoying obstacles was too present to deal with this creature lightly.

Adalrik, his wand still tight in his hand, aimed towards a spot between the beast and the pillar, shouting “Bombarda.” With any luck the small explosion that the spell caused would be enough to melt the pillar and force the creature a few steps back, leaving Adalrik with the space to rush to the egg. These type of spells were what he was good at; destruction came easy to Adalrik.

The spell melted the pillar in part, about 1/4th of what was there fading away. However, at that moment the creature stared him down, approaching with a snarl, brows furrowing at Adalrik's presence.

After the explosion died down Adarlik saw the pillar of ice had not melted completely. His plan had not worked. No matter, he would easily melt it next time. But first it was clear he had to deal with this creature before he could concentrate on the egg.

As the beast stared at him Adalrik grinned. It was large and clearly deadly, but it wasn't going to frighten him. Adalrik had stared death in the face many times before, whether it be in the form of a discarded needle or the cold dead eyes of his father. He had learned that fear would only weaken him and cause mistakes. This was not the time for such a thing.

Instead Adalrik barked out a laugh as the creature approached. “You're a little mangy for a lion; could Hogwarts not afford a real threat?” His voice was mocking, aimed right towards the manticore. He had no idea if the dumb creature could understand his words but most living things knew an insult by the timbre of a voice. He wanted this thing to back off and leave him be and his first instinct was to be as much as a threat to it as it was to him.

While he was talking Adarlik's eyes were searching the beast for any tender looking areas, any spot where a well placed blow or spell would penetrate and do the most damage.

The manticore charged Adalrik, growling and "tail" flailing.

“Oh did that upset you you overgrown house cat?” Adarlik sneered as he dove out of the way of the charging beast. If there was a time in his life that he was glad he spent so much time running and exercising this was it. He was quick and precise in his movements, years of practice finally paying off. Avoiding the tail was his main goal now. He twisted and turned to get out of its way and behind the partially melted pillar.

He was breathing heavy again, but his heart was racing in excitement. This was more like it. It was too bad he didn't have a knife or something sharp. But was he supposed to injure the creature? Adalrik didn't want to get points deducted for harming something...but really what did they expect? If he could he would kill beast just to prove that he could.

But he didn't have anything sharp at the moment. Instead he pointed his wand at the creature, flicked it upward and said, “alarte ascendare.” He was channeling all his rage and adrenaline into the spell, pumping it full of energy. With any luck it would work and the creature would be shot high into the air, giving Adalrik time to melt the pillar and grab the egg before the beast fell back onto the ice and hopefully injured itself.

The creature struggled to turn around on the ice, but once it did it charged for Adalrik again, unaffected by the spell.

“Dammit!” Adarlik yelled as his spell failed. He was getting pissed off now. This was a tournament about magic! Why wouldn't his magic work! He ground his teeth together, silently cursing all of the professors for coming up with these idiotic tasks. The only solace he took in them was the fact that he was certain his competitors must be having an even harder time than he was.

He yet again dashed out of the way of the beast as it charged for him. He was still focused on his failed spell though and a corner of a sharp claw drew blood from his arm as the creature only narrowly missed him. Adalrik had noticed something important about its movements, though. Before as it tried to turn it skidded on the ice, struggling. So it wasn't as deft and dexterous as he was. Its immense body was a hindrance to it in these slippery conditions. Well wasn't that just too bad for it? Another grin formed on Adalrik's face as he came up with a plan.

All he had to do was avoid the creature while he melted the pillar. He assumed once he had the eggs in his hands the task would be over and the beast would be gone. Adalrik could move swiftly on the ice, his balance and strong legs working for him. He could slip and slide with ease and control his motions better than the hulking creature. True, the creature had grazed him once already, but he wouldn't let that happen again.

So Adalrik set off at a run from the creature, switching directions as much as he could while still remaining balanced. As he did his wand pointed toward the pillar and he roared “Confringo!” hoping that this stronger curse would melt more of the ice. He could feel the rage of the flame burst forth through him, as if his anger was fueling his spell.

Now the ice was halfway melted, but the creatures was still in full charge, slipping and sliding. The creature couldn't get a good balance on it's own feet, and swung it's scorpian-like tail wildly as it tried to reach Adalrik, but could not.

He had been right, the beast was losing its footing and sliding around. Adalrik continued running, his path taking him closer and closer to the pillar. He shot two more curses at it, hoping to wear it away by the time he reached it. He kept his eyes on the creatures flailing tail, making sure it got no where near him. It wasn't too hard as Adalrik was quicker and lighter on his feet and confident now. He laughed out loud as he made a sharp turn, skidding on the ice. “Not so ferocious now, are you?”

The beast growled, but smarter than he looked, he charged straight at nothing, in hopes that Adalrik wasn't paying attention and would swerved back into him without paying attention to where he was going. He was still a bit ways back, but he was not sliding forward.

Adalrik was looking at the creature's tail and not his moving body. It was too late before he noticed its pattern had changed. The beast was now headed straight for him as Adalrik charged towards the pillar.

The collision was forceful and Adalik was thrown backwards as the weight of the beast smashed into him. He could feel the bruises already forming from where its body had pressed against his. He went skidding on the ice before the creature, his whole body now on the ground. Everything screamed out in pain when he had made contact with the hard ice, but he was used to pain and, indeed, welcomed it. It helped him funnel his anger and control it. The pain made Adalrik see more clearly.

He looked to his immediate left and saw a large icicle hanging from a ledge. Scampering up before the beast had time to right itself after its collision Adalrik quickly cast the gripping charm on it and grabbed a hold of its now less slippery sides. His muscles bulged as he pulled with all his might and it detached from the ledge. Lifting it above his head he hurled it as hard as he could towards the beasts face, pointed end first.

Without waiting to see if it made contact Adalrik ran again towards the pillar, hoping to see that his last two spells had melted it enough to grab the egg.

The egg had been set free, but the monster was still on it's way, hoping to dodge the sharp point that was sent at it.