Hunting: Loch Ness

Everyone seemed up for taking up the Gillyweed to take to the waters of Loch Ness, so Jack continued in her endeavour to fish the slimy seaweed-like plant from her pack. "I suggest waterproofing your clothes. It's going to be cold and you will appreciate having as much clothing as possible to keep you warm." She took out her wand and recited the incantation, her clothing becoming stiffer on her body.

She heard a noise and turned, looking at the source of the noise, which was Michael's pack. Her eyes flicked from the pack to her companion and gave him a shrewd look. She smirked and pushed gillyweed into his hands, before distributing enough out to everyone. "That should last for an hour and half to two hours. If we're in longer than that, come up and perform the bubble head charm." She looked around. "I hope you all don't mind if I take the lead, here? I know where we're going."

Mariana shoved another couple of gyllyweeds to have a stock in case necessary. Bubble head charm was not one of her favorite charms, and transfiguration was not one of her favorite classes in school. "When you begin breathing underwater i don't think you will feel the cold too much. But ofcourse i prefer to keep my clothes on in case we run into something unexpected." she commented taking of her chal and her jacket to make herself more comftable.

Gillyweed was shoved down her throat, it tasted like grass. As she put her jacket and the little bag to hide in a bush she was ready for this. "Ready when you are. This thing will take effect in about 30 seconds." she told the others and jumped into the water, but did not go under it before everyone else joined her.

Michael took the snotty looking seaweed from Jack. He actually detested the stuff, but, it seemed, as Mari had said, more practical if they were going into tight spaces. He hesitated and looked over at Angus who had already used the waterproof spell on his clothes. Angus seemed to have no hesitation about swallowing the gillyweed. He looked up and saw Michael looking at him.

"Pretend its a raw oyster, Mate," was Angus's less than helpful advice. Angus dove into the loch, knowing the gillyweed worked quickly. Michael used the waterproof spell on his own clothing and looked distastefully at the gillyweed. It was not a delectable oyster. 'Nevertheless,' he thought. He followed Angus's advice and swallowed it whole, like an oyster shooter and followed Angus into the water.

Jack kicked off her shoes and socks stepped into the water. shoving the weed into her mouth and chewing vigorously, before swallowing the lump in her throat. She gripped her wand and glanced at the others, before closing her eyes and diving. Under the water, she opened her eyes but continued to hold her breath until her vision spotted. She took in a deep breath and her lungs filled pleasantly. She shook with relief and propelled herself forward.

The lake looked murky but Jack could see far enough ahead. She turned quickly and spotted a rock formation that looked familiar- she had almost been scraped against it when she held onto the creature. She turned to the group and pointed at the rocks. Without another word, she turned and kicked herself that way, still holding tight to her wand.

Michael dove down into the silty water, feeling his lungs--no, wait...gills start to breathe. The visual of the nasty water in his system disgusted him, and the moment it entered his brain, he heard Robert's voice in his head. It was a memory of their stuent days when they had been in a situation not so different from this. And Robert had merely responded to Michael's disgust with, "Stop being such a primadonna, Mikey!"

Michael didn't get disgusted by much now, so he surprised himself that he'd actually been disgusted twice in one morning. He saw Jack point to the rocks, and he headed that direction.

Angus had gone a bit deeper into the loch than Michael had, and he had done it deliberately to avoid someone diving into him. Once they were in the loch, he came up to the water level. He looked over at Michael and saw him almost curl his lip at the sensation of the muddy wate in his system. It made Angus laugh.

Michael returned a gesture to him that suggested that Angus had a piece of gillyweed stuck in his pearly white teeth. When he went to try to rub it off his tooth, Michael razzed him and laughed and swam off with a rather smug look on his face, leaving Angus to follow behind.

The water in Loch Ness is well below freezing point, and only gets colder the deeper you go. To make things worse, the water is oddly murky and only gets dirtier and thicker the deeper you go, making it harder and harder to see. Strange shapes dance around in this cloud of much, always looking just out of reach, but never clearly defined. A strange constant, cracking noise can be heard, it's soft but ever present.

The fun was over. His kibbutzing with Michael was interrupted with a foreboding sound. Cracking. That usually didn't work out well. It wasn't loud. It was soft. Almost insidious. He stopped short and glanced back at Michael who was looking to see if he could see where the sound was coming from as well. Angus didn't like it, and he could see Michael didn't either. The water was so filled with silt and muck, though, that he certainly couldn't see if there was something that wasn't "normal" here. And to make matters worse, the farther down they went, the colder it got and the darker it got--in dramatic leaps and bounds. Angus was determined to keep a serious watch on the effectiveness of the gillyweed, because at this rate, it would likely take them hours to find whatever the heck they were here to look for. He had no intention of drowning in what was little more than watery mud.

Michael had heard the sound before Angus had. Angus had still been checking his teeth. Idiot. Michael thought the sound was coming from over his left shoulder, and he spun that way in the water, but the murky darkness kept him from seeing much of anything. He didn't like it. Soft sounds, in Michael's business, were typically harbingers of either being caught, being captured, being attacked, or some other unwanted intrusion. And when he heard them, he was driven to discover what had made them. The more he listened, the more he realized the sound was, apparently a constant down here. That didn't make it normal.

He motioned to the others. Staying together was becoming an imperative. Besides that, much as Jack felt she knew this down here, Michael was always protective of her. His great love for the young woman was not going to let this slide. He kicked forward--closing in on Jack. Not because he was afraid. But rather, because he was sharply alert.

Sure enough Mariana froze in record time, when the air seemed to become heavy she dived underwater after the rest of her team. It was clear that she would need a good time in bed on some tropical island to get rid of all the cold that was pressing her lungs. The only relief is that she could not cough while breathing like a fish. She was a good swimmer so she caught up with the rest in a few seconds. Her wand was close by in her right hand and her feet were leading her forward.

After a couple of minutes she begun to realize that it was getting darker and darker as she dived deeper into the lake. "Lumos!" she tried to say, but only a few bubbles came out of her mouth. The top of her wand lit up though it was still so dark that she was not confident in her success. Mari decided to follow Jack for the moment untill she could actually destinguish something apart from her companions swimming ahead of her.