Off to Tame Nessie and Maybe Wrangle a Llama or Two

Andrew jumped for a second when he saw Jack coming towards them. He watched Jack's mouth begin to form silent words and he nodded. He wondered how far Nessie was, and if it was dangerous or not. The thing was enourmous, yet didn't know if it was capable of violence or not. It probably was, so he would have to watch where he would swim for now. He felt himself begin to return to normal, feeling his head become back on balance. He watched Jack turn on Lumos, which slightly hurt his eyes due to the transition from dark to light.

He looked around the cave, feeling better that they were alone at the moment. His arms already were sore from hanging onto Nessie, and didn't feel like doing it again. They'd probably be ripped from their sockets. He stayed close to Jack, turning his back towards Chase and gripping onto her hand. He didn't want to lose her again at that point. They needed to stick together. "Let's go," he mouthed to Chase, adrenaline pumping through his body.

Chase had jumped so badly she had been flown forward in her momentum and stood staring at them as Jack tapped their shoulders. "Not funny.." She mouthed and went back to them, feeling like an astronaut on the moon. Standing next to Andrew again she looked down the tunnel and gulped. He was gripping her hand, but she felt her whole body tense. She wasn't ready for this, she knew she wasn't. And she was about to turn away, when the light of her lumos caught the sparkle of something farther on down the cave.

Chase stared at it for a long moment, and without even looking at Andrew, she let go of his hand and moved forward. Creeping down the cave, she shined her light around and then slowly looked at the ground again. Something golden was glittering on the ground and she bent down to pick it up. Her eyes flew open when she realized just what it was and she spun around looking for Andrew and Jack. They had to see this! It appeared to be a chess piece, but not just any chess piece, the knight she held in her hand, was made of sold gold.

Jack had stayed in front of Chase and Andrew for the most part, wanting to find whatever was ahead first; yes, Jack could be somewhat greedy when it came to her little adventures. She was so focused on continuing forward, her eyes straining with the excitement and knowledge that ahead one of the most ancient and famous magical creatures was waiting for them... or something better.

But something caught her eyes ahead and though she tried to ignore it as she started to reach it, she could not help but veer off to inspect the smooth, curved rock walls of the cave. She felt someone hurry past her and for once Jack was too distracted to try to the head of an exploration.

Five foot long gouge marks ran horizontally along the cave walls. Jack placed a few fingers into the terrible marks and felt them go inches deep,smooth at the tip, but ragged in some places. She shivered slightly.

Ouch.

She noticed a movement and realized she was falling behind. She darted forward and reached Chase, gasping as she saw the golden chess piece.

Andrew stared at where Chase had made the discovery of some golden object, which suspiciously to him looked like a chess piece. He raised an eyebrow, not exactly sure what that was doing there. There must've been some sort of treasure lurking around that they needed to find. A sudden wave of fear collapsed over him as he felt something, an irrugular movement in the water. He slowly turned around and noticed that the water begin to move in small ripples.

Nessie was looking for them.

Andrew froze for a second, wondering about what they should do to hide. He could go invisible, yet didn't know if he was just getting paranoid about Nessie coming close. anything could've caused that small ripple to happen, yet he didn't want to take chances. Andrew focused heavily for a moment, his entire body disappearing a second later. Using his invisible wand, he spelt out the words 'I think it's coming'. Swimming slowly, he hugged the wall, his breathing increasing.

Chase stared at the piece in amazement. "What.." She whispered and then looked up when she saw words. "Coming?" She jumped and looked around, feeling an odd rushing movement in the water, like something rather large was moving swiftly through the water. "Oh.. my... merlin." She whispered and swam to a wall, as though afraid that thing would fly past her. She still held onto the chess piece, her mind racing to fast for her to even unclench her fist. Andrew had disappeared, and pretty much left Jack and Chase to fend for herself. A stab of annoyance flashed through her, before it was replaced by fear. She found a small crevice and shot a small spell out to them, getting their attention.

"Over here!" She called, gesturing wildly towards herself. Forgetting that every movement they made was a current in the water. And would probably catch this monster's attention. She pushed herself in the crevice and sat down on the sandy bottom. Her body shaking with cold and fear as seaweed brushed against her arm. She jumped and almost flew out of her safe spot, before she realized it was just seaweed. She curled herself into the seaweed, and felt a rush of water flow into the confined entrance of the cave. Pressure pushed Chase farther down onto the ground, and suddenly it stopped. But one look up and Chase realized she was looking directly into the eyes, of the Loch Ness Monster.

Jack felt the ripples too and saw her friends hurrying to get out of the way. As though she had been dared, Jack began to bravely inch her way forward, pulling herself along the wall of the cave. It was a very foolish thing to do, but Jack was determined to have an adventure, because that was made her life worth living.

She reached a turn and was about to go around it when a body moved past her. The strong current buffeted her and she was sent tumbling in the water, somersaulting until she lost all views of right side up and upside down. Nessie's tail caught her leg and she was slammed into the wall.

Leg aching, Jack finally righted herself in time to see the beast sniffing the water around it and then turning its head. With a jolt, Jack realized that Chase had just disappeared into the crevice that Nessie was about to poke its head into. She shot forward and her arms closed around its neck, right below its chin. It thrust its head upward, grazing its nose on the top of the crevice before ramming its head onto the cave ceiling. A few rocks tumbled out of place.

It began to whip its head back and forth and Jack held tight to it, waving with one hand to tel Chase to get out of the crevice. Jack's escape would be easy enough, but Chase did not need to be cornered.

Andrew felt ashamed at the fact he had decided to hide, instead of trying to fight it head on. Yet, he didn't feel like dying at that point, but now he knew he had to act. Turning visible again, he looked towards the great fish and examined its body. There would be a lot of places that could be weak on it, but he didn't know if he would have to kill it or not. That would have to be a last defence at least.

He looked towards the crevice where Chase's spell had gottten his attention and quickly swam towards it, the large creature in the way. Pulling out his gauntlets from his pockets, he aimed his palms at the creatures face and chanted the spell that Chase had used to propel them forward. Trying his best to stay where he was, a large force of water blasted against the creatures face, getting it's attention. It looked towards him and he immediatly began to think the F word over and over again in his head.

Examing the creature, he stood there frozen for a couple of seconds. He probably should'nt have done that. The creature then tried to lunge at Andrew, but Andrew had managed to use the same spell to push him away from it's bite. "Lumos Maxima!" he casted, and two orbs of light appeared on the palms of Andrew's gauntlets, almost signalling his two friends to where he was.

Chase could feel it staring, and suddenly it was gone. Thrashing around, something was obviously not making it happy. Chase didn't need to be told twice, she high tailed it out of there, half swimming half running along the bottom of the lake. But then she turned around, looking at Andrew. He had two balls of light in his hands and she stared at him for a long moment before she moved to his side. "We have to help her!" she cried out, then made a look of pure annoyance. Pulling out her wand she wrote what she had just tried to say and stared at Andrew pointedly.

She looked up at Jack and then had to jump/swim out of the way as a flipper of the giant beast thing practically hit her. She stared up at the monster and sighed. Jack was still on it, she couldn't possibly leave her friends now. Except that every nerve in her body was telling her to run. She glanced at the entrance and then back at Andrew and Jack. Before she jumped forward again, her hair making a wreath around her head that moved to and fro with the water currents. She shot the same spell that Andrew had shot at the beast, but aimed for it's underbelly when it reared up, trying to find Jack, who was obviously just out of site on it's neck.

Jack glanced at her friends who were busily trying to help her, but she just felt slightly frustrated. It would be most helpful if they just gout out of there so she could do whatever she needed to do to escape without having to wonder if they had gotten out okay. She fumbled for her wand and tightened her grip, determined not to lose it.

She pointed her wand at them and focused hard on the blasting spell they had been using to propel themselves forward. Clinging to the strong monster, she was splayed out oddly with the force off the spell, but a jet of fast-paced water hit them, though she could not see if it had pushed them out of the way in time.

She creature's head flew upwards and its hard skull bumped her forehead. Her eyes immediately watered from the blow as a headache began to form. She shook her head and kept herself from getting angry. This was the most legendary magical creature of all time; no way in hell was she going to be the one who killed it.

She pointed her wand at it as she shifted until she was clinging to the side of his neck. She fired the spell and the water hit him in the face, pushing him further into the cave and propelling her outwards. The force of him flying the other way created a sucking effect and she began to get pulled back into the cave. She fired the spell again and she came shooting out of the cave. She heard a roar from the creature, but she saw its eyes as it disappeared and headed further back into the safety of its cave.

Andrew felt himself starting to be pushed out of the cave, at a a strong force. He hated the idea of having to run away at something like this, but he knew Jack had some kind of idea. He felt himself do summersaults through the water, hitting his back on one of the sharp wall spikes, tearing up his back slightly. Once he felt himself out of the cave, a stinging sensation appeared on his back and putting him a lot of pain. Great.

Once he came to a stop, he put his hand onto his back, feeling hopeful that it could somehow stop the pain. His thoughts were too clouded to use any spells and could feel more pain shooting through him. He swore loudly inside his bubble, feeling his adrenaline pump through his veins at a quicker rate, making the pain feel obsolete. He looked back down towards the cave, seeing Jack flying out of the cave at that point. He swam upwards, shooting another flare spell downwards, to let them know he was going upwards.

Once Andrew broke through the surface, he punched the bubble, causing it to pop and began to swear continuously. He really hoped that whatever happened to him wouldn't scar. He used the jet spell to push him towards the shoreline and fell to his knees on to warm grass. He moved his hand away from his back, revealing red drops on the tip of his fingers and his palm. "Chase!" he yelled, turning his head towards the center of the lake "Jack! I'm over here!"