*****
Half an hour before visiting the Hospital Wing. Ravenclaw Tower.
The conversations of children, the rustle of turning pages, the smell of old books, as well as the light emitted by the fire - all this created an unforgettable atmosphere unique to this place. Although, she could easily pass for the same one, but in the library. However, the children did not feel as free there as they do here.
Raven House Lounge. A certain mystery always reigns in her. An outsider, if he finds himself here, may not immediately understand: is he really in the living room, and not in another library?
Since this faculty gathers mainly those who thirst for knowledge and are burdened by society, then, of course, the relationships here are also not the same as in other faculties.
Badgers - goodwill, willingness to help those in need, as well as unity.
Leos - fun, excitement, a certain aggressiveness, but we should not forget about a certain cohesion in front of the enemy (even if they can bait their own...).
Snakes - caution, profit, duty, intrigue (they are also present in other faculties, but not so pronounced). For outsiders, this house is one, but inside there can be such squabbles that an ignorant person can be horrified.
What about the Ravens? Well, this faculty primarily welcomes knowledge. Isolation and also caution. It's sad, but it so happened that the faculty of smart people began to value this trait first of all. If you are careful, don't get involved in other people's conflicts, and don't stand out, this is your home. But as soon as you stand out in any way, you are guaranteed to become a pariah (unless, of course, you are strong enough to shut other people's mouths).
If one of their faculty is in trouble (not strong, not significant, and so on), then the faculty itself will forget about him and will not lend a helping hand. Smart people have no cohesion, they are alone, on their own.
One of the facets of their relationship can be seen right now in their living room.
In a soft chair, next to the fireplace, sat a small, thin girl, reading books lying on her lap. Her blonde curls covered her pretty face, thereby hiding it from prying eyes.
From time to time, Luna (and it was she) grabbed the medallion that hung on her chest, smiling softly.
At first glance, it's an ordinary picture, just typical of this place, but from the second... if you look at her and her surroundings from a different angle, it becomes clearly visible that the girl is being avoided. No one sits next to her, not a single phrase that was heard within these walls was addressed specifically to her, as if she were some kind of pariah.
Alas, because of her behavior and character, the Moon is exactly like that. They are not happy to see her within the walls of her native "home" (with the exception of a couple of people). And if it weren't for the "patronage" of one of the faculty members, the matter would not have ended with the usual ignoring. Bullying could easily have occurred at this point.
Suddenly, a bird's singing was heard in the air. Of course, they paid attention to him... But no, no one heard this except for the lonely girl. Raising her face, Luna stared with her silver eyes at an ordinary sparrow that had swooped down and landed on the girl's palm.
Bowing her head to the side, the girl looked carefully at the bird, as if asking: "Where are you from?"
Suddenly the bird began to blur, as if it were made of some kind of fog. A moment later, the sparrow disappeared, and in its place was a piece of paper, neatly folded several times.
Having unfolded it, Luna looked with interest at the neat lines of text.
As soon as she finished reading, the piece of paper instantly caught fire. Two seconds and there was no trace left of him, but Luna didn't care. She was already flying at full speed towards the owlery, and a mysterious smile played on her lips.
And no one (with the exception of a couple of people from senior years who were currently in the living room) paid any attention to the girl who so quickly left the living room. Only one girl looked after her, but after a moment she returned to her previous occupation.
*****
In the light of the moon, the thick trunks of the trees, as well as their dense crowns, created enough shadows so that a traveler who wished to remain unnoticed remained so.
The roots of the ancient giants had long ago emerged, covering the entire earth with their shoots. They were intertwined so tightly and thickly that they caused trouble even for me.
Having entered invis mode in advance, I carefully moved towards the habitat of giant spiders. If you thought that their nest was near the border of the forest, then you were mistaken. These predators were well aware that if they were too close to the school, no one would tolerate them, simply gathering a task force of magicians (mercenaries, nature reserve rangers, etc.) and cutting them out at the root. Aragog the spider is smart (as smart as it can be), so he foresaw this and moved away into the forest, where intelligent people would be careful not to climb.
Gradually, the ancient forest became more and more ancient. The tree trunks are thicker, the crowns are denser, and the shadows are more impenetrable. With every step deeper into the forest, I felt more and more dense mana. This means that spiders choose a place with a more saturated mana. There's a reason they're magical creatures.
After about two minutes of wandering, I finally came across the first signs that spiders live here. Web. At first there was not much of it, but with every step it became more and more. It intertwined and intertwined, thereby forming sort of paths for spiders, along which they moved quite actively.
With the help of magical vision, I was able to notice several hundred very thin cobwebs that were artificially woven into the general network so as to be invisible. Mana circulated through these special "threads." And judging by the location, these were signal threads.
In order to verify my theory, I carefully, using telekinesis and a stick, touched one of the threads. In response to my actions, she sent a certain impulse towards the center.
Interesting system. If you touch me, I will find out about you; if you destroy me, they will also find out about you. The only option left is to avoid the signals, but this is quite difficult to implement due to the invisibility and density of the location, which does not leave a single chance.
So, thinking about the principle of operation of this system, I climbed one of the trees and began to wait for further events. The wait didn't last long; after just five minutes I heard dozens of barely audible sounds (a person would hardly have heard them), as if something was clicking. After another ten seconds, five acramantulas appeared in the "light", quite professionally avoiding the supposed site of the invasion. Their paws walked quite quickly and dexterously along the web, almost without moving it.
Having made sure that there was no one here, the acramantulas retreated into the darkness again. Alas, they were all too young, which was sad. However, perhaps one of them will lead me to bigger ones?
The next fifteen minutes passed monotonously. The spider (which I followed) walked quite dexterously along the path it knew. Well, with the help of telekinesis, I moved after him, hiding in the treetops.
At the end of this race, I saw the place where this acramantula was in such a hurry.
Has everyone seen how spiders weave webs? Rays radiate from the center and intertwine with each other in rings. And in the center of all this splendor sits a spider, waiting for its victim. This is exactly the picture I saw, only on a much larger scale.
In a small clearing that was formed by a row of trees, the entire space was filled from bottom to top with cobwebs of varying thicknesses. If you look closely, you can see the very structure of the spider that was located not only horizontally to the ground, but also vertically, and at an angle, and many more times, but at a different angle. All this created such chaos.
But the most interesting thing is that between these "layers" of the web that intersected, a kind of system was clearly observed, since the spiders moved quite dexterously in this jumble without touching anyone.
Around this clearing, right from the treetops, hung cocoons in which the spiders' prey was stored.
And all this was dominated by one spider, which was very different from the rest. Firstly, he was much larger than his brothers. Secondly, its chitin is much more bulky and sinister. And thirdly, its color. If the smaller ones were monochromatic - gray, black, brown, then this representative had a mixed color. The belly is brown, the back is black. There was also some kind of pattern visible on the chitin, but I couldn't figure out what.
It is this individual that is considered an adult. But the trouble is, this spider was located in the very center of the web structure, so it was impossible to get to it unnoticed. It was surrounded by cobwebs on all sides, so it was impossible not to touch it. Hmm, what should I do? Lure him out? You can also try?
Moving a little further from this mini-lair, I, according to the already worked out scheme, touched one of the signal beams. Fifteen seconds later the sound of spiders approaching was heard. And it's true, I saw three individuals, but the main one was not visible. Okay, let's continue.
For the next ten minutes I did what I did, provoking the acramantulas, bumping into alarms in different places. From three to seven individuals came running to each of the Ra signals, but the main one never showed itself. Okay, let's try it differently.
Returning to the nest, I saw a picture called: "The Hornet's Nest." The spiders were not calm, they all moved here and there. Some of them were decreasing, while others were increasing. The leader himself sat in the same place and gave orders, knocking with his paws on one of the many cobwebs.
After following this action, I began to implement a new plan. Using telekinesis, I approached one of the cocoons and cut the web on which it was hanging with a blow of a dagger. At the same moment, jumping onto another tree (praise telekinesis), I began to wait.
With a loud crunch, the cocoon fell to the ground. All the spiders froze, silence fell. Second, two, three...
- Kriiii! - the "main" acramantula squealed, snapping its mandibles and knocking its paws on the web.
- Cree! Cree! Cree! - dozens of smaller spiders echoed him.
Did I mention there used to be a hornet's nest? Then now it was a stirred up hornet's nest. The packs climbed, ran, and jumped! unless they just flew. All individuals were busy searching for the intruder.
After five minutes of screaming, the adult calmed down. Hmm, let's continue.
In the next minute I cut off all twenty cocoons. At the last one, I almost ran into an acramantula the size of a dog, simply touching one of the many signal threads.
The screams of the adult increased with every second, the blows of the paws became stronger and stronger. Echoing her, all rations began to scatter in different directions. Finally, the head himself also got out of the den and rushed to one of the directions. Two smaller relatives ran after him. Great.
The pursuit of the adult took about five more minutes. Finally she stopped and froze in place and began to look around with her eyes in different directions.
Hanging over her from above, I got ready. Well, it's time. Having ceased to hold myself back with telekinesis, I rushed down, straight to the head of the acramantula.
With a hiss, the blade of the dagger made contact with the chitin, and then broke it with a crunch. Leaving the dagger in earlier, I jumped to the side, drawing my wand.
- Cree! - the acramantula howled in agony, spitting poison in different directions. Ten seconds later he fell silent, falling to the ground.
A wave of the wand and, along with the dissipation of the invis, wind blades fly into small packs.
A light whistle and the bodies of the spiders, dissected, fall to the ground. Great.
Approaching the adult spider, I tore the dagger out of its head with a squelching sound. If the spider's death is noticed, then I have four and a half minutes before its fellows arrive here. Excellent, the best thing to do is to cut up the spider and take away the most valuable (the good stuff shouldn't go to waste).
With a whistle, several blades flew out of my hand, cutting off the spider's legs. Green blood flowed from the wounds. Time to harvest.