#3 I See Fire

Oscar stopped walking when he realised that just moving along the path looking for prints was doing him no good. He had hoped that the reported ashy-ness of them would make any prints stand out, but there was no such luck.

He had spotted the odd mark here and there, but when he had crouched down for a closer look he could not actually tell what they were from. Was it another student? Some other creature?

Whatever it was, there was no ash, so what were the chances that it was left by the Fire-Belly Geckos anyway?

Oscar sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration. How hard could it be to find a creature that sounded like it set fire to things? Surely it should be easy to find signs of fire in a forest?

It was at that moment that he happened to look to the side and spotted a bush that was partially scorched.

Well, he had wanted to find signs of fire and that seemed like a pretty good one.

It was just rather unfortunate for his continued health that it led off into the overgrowth.

What had he really been expecting though? To find the geckos lying about on the forest path itself? If he really thought about it then yeah, that seemed unlikely and more like wishful thinking.

But still, there was a gecko somewhere out there that apparently required some medicine. Could he really in good conscience turn back and ignore it?

The answer to that was no, something that he decided fairly quickly as he pulled his wand out to hold ready for any need of it. He was going to trek further into the forest for the sake of a Fire-Belly Gecko, but that did not mean that he was completely stupid.

Oscar adjusted the strap of his satchel to go over his chest so that he was less likely to lose it if anything happened, shifted his grip on his wand so that it was more comfortable, and then stepped off the path to traipse into the overgrowth.

“Here we go,” he muttered to himself as he moved as carefully as he could while trying to follow the signs and find any more.

As eagle-eyed as he had been about following the clues and looking for any more, Oscar was still somewhat startled to actually come across one of the creatures. Well, come across, nearly trip over into fiery pain while he was distracted with a bush being on actual fire.. That was basically the same thing, right?

His shock had probably not been helped by the physical appearance of the Fire-Belly Gecko either. He had not expected something so long and, well, crocodile-like. He did not know how else to describe them.

He had thought the geckos would be smaller and.. Oh, he didn’t want to say cuter, because that seemed mean and the Fire Belly’s were kind of cute in their own weird way (he ignored the voice that said few would agree with him about that).

More traditionally cute, maybe? That seemed fairer.

While Oscar had been busy musing about what people considered cute, another gecko had appeared. Oh, and it and the first gecko had decided to spit sparks-

Oh sweet Merlin, they were on fire.

Actual fire. Hot and bright and oh that was not good.

Oscar was starting to feel a bit too warm. Sure he did not like the cold that had begun to set in with the month change, but he had only fantasised about starting a fire once. He didn’t want the whole forest to be burnt down!

He knew in theory going into his trip out that he may have to put the geckos out, which implied some level of flames, but he still had not expected the sight in front of him. Maybe he should have done a bit of research instead of accepting the noticeboard information as it was.

Oh yay, there were four of them. Because apparently the geckos doubled while you were distracted. Oscar was slightly worried about blinking. If he blinked would there suddenly be eight facing him? He very much doubted his ability to remain unburned if there were that many.

The bush was still on fire, so he was already slightly doubting his chances of not getting burned anyway. More fire would be the opposite of helpful.

“Oh!” he startled, his eyes darting away from the Fire Belly’s as he remembered. The bush was still on fire! Fire that was in danger of spreading.

“Aquamenti!” he said as he quickly raised his wand, the need for water not hard to find. He was glad he’d had his wand at the ready at least.

Oscar watched as his jet of water battled back the flames until he was left with a blackened bush, smoke twirling away from it.

Just to be on the safe side, since, again, he really did not want the forest to burn down, he held his jet of water over the bush for a moment longer before he let the spell fade.

One fire down. He glanced back at the Fire-Belly’s (still just the four of them, thank Merlin). Who knew how many fires to go.

Maybe it would be better to deal with the cause of the fires rather than to wait around for another to be started. That would probably be the smart thing to do.

Oscar decided that yes, that was probably the best option. So, with the promise that it would not hurt them held tight inside, he pointed his wand towards the first gecko he had seen.

“Aquamenti,” he cast again, this time to produce a gentler fountain of water. He may have the reassurance that the water would not hurt the gecko, but it still seemed like it would be a bad idea to send a full strength jet straight at them.

Instead he artfully danced his fountain around the gecko to gently splash first its tail and sides, before he slowly worked his way to properly douse the creature.

He had the fingers of his spare hand crossed, really really hoping that the note had been right about it not hurting them.

As the water splashed that first gecko though, he had the slightly horrifying thought pop up, about what if they were actually like the fire creature from that game. Char-something - the name was right there - and putting its fire out was actually super bad and he had just very badly misinterpreted the note.

That would be one of the worst things that he had ever done.

Oscar was extremely relieved to see the Gecko’s reaction to the water. Sure, it seemed slightly confused at the sudden appearance of rain, but there did not seem to be any distress. If anything the water seemed to calm it down and pushed the creature in the direction of a nap.

One Gecko put out, and hopefully any chance of it starting another fire minimised for the moment, Oscar turned to check the other three.

One of the three had scurried off when it saw that its battle with the first had been cut short, and Oscar wondered if he should be worried about that one starting a fire out of sight. Should he chase it? It seemed fairly riled up..

There were two other Geckos in front of him though. That was two whole chances to burn the forest down against the one.

Oscar decided to deal with the threats that he could see first.

“Aguamenti,” he waved his wand to send a gentle spray at the next Fire Belly to hose it down before he turned his attention to the third. The third who looked ever so slightly different to the others.

Oscar tilted his head as he considered it. It was a bit bigger and its colouring seemed somewhat dulled - a sign of age maybe? There was something different about its flames too though. Were they burning colder somehow?

Curious, Oscar tentatively began to reach a hand out towards them before he came to his senses and quickly snapped it back.

Touching strange creatures he came across in the forest was not the brightest of ideas. And neither was touching fire. He was fifteen, so you would really hope that he knew both of those things by that point in life.

Fire was a big ouch for poking, even if it did seem to be weirdly cold-burning.

He still wondered why that was. Was it age like he had been leaning towards for its dulled colour? Or was it ill?

He remembered that he was there to give medicine to the biggest gecko and that was the biggest one he could see. That lent weight to the ill Fire-Belly theory then. The poor little guy.

Oscar wanted to look around for the rumoured chest that held its medicine, he just had the little problem of the ‘little guy’ still being on fire. He should probably do something about that..

“Aguamenti,” he said with a wave of his wand in its direction.

The bigger gecko soon joined its friends (family?) in being sprayed with water.

“There we go, buddy,” he said once he was done, his voice soft to not startle the creatures. “Let’s see about that chest then, yeah?”

Had Oscar forgotten about the fourth fire-hazard in face of what he presumed was an ill creature? Why yes, yes he had.

Instead of chasing down the gecko that had scurried off, he proceeded to search around the area for the mysterious chest. He hoped that it was nearby so he did not lose track of the Fire Belly’s that he had put out.

The chest spotted, Oscar took a moment to smile at the three Fire Belly’s sunbathing, before his worry for that big one caught back up to him and he moved towards the chest.

He got half way before he was surprised by more fire appearing next to him.

“Merlin! What?!” he jumped back startled to see the culprit.

Four geckos! There were four of them about and he had only put out three.

He had slightly forgotten about the fourth in his focus on the ones that he could see. Out of sight and all that. Whoops.

Apparently the fourth Gecko did not take well to being forgotten or its friends no longer wanting to play. Not if its answer to that was to start a fire.

“Aguamenti,” he said, waving his wand once again. Boy was he getting good use out of that spell today. He couldn’t help but mentally thank Professor Sprout for teaching it to him.

He sent the by now familiar fountain of water over the Gecko to chill that guy out, and then turned his attention to the latest fire before it could spread any further.

“Aguamenti,” he said again, this time sending a jet to douse the latest attempt at a forest fire.

As he put out the bush, Oscar could not help but wonder how the Fire Belly’s had not burned the forest down already. The only thing stopping that from happening could not be the off chance that a student decided to complete a task for them.. Could it?

No. Hogwarts was ridiculous sometimes, but surely not that ridiculous.

Oscar decided to ignore the little voice that said yeah, Hogwarts really was exactly like that. That voice was not helpful when he was trying to reassure himself about the continued existence of the rest of the forest’s plants and creatures.

Oh look, at least the latest fire was put out. With that done, Oscar stopped the flow of water from his wand.

What was he doing again? Oh, the chest, of course!

He shot the sneaky fourth Gecko a look to check on it and then looked around to try to spot anything else that was waiting to try to give him a heart attack. Only then did he carry on towards the chest.

Oscar opened the chest and pulled out the promised vial. He had no idea what was in the vial, other than it being medicine of some sort. He was just going to have to trust that it would help the big Fire Belly that looked exhausted.

The vial in hand, he carefully made his way back to the largest of the four. He didn’t want to startle any of them, but he did not see how he could give it the medicine without getting close.

“I’ve got your medicine right here, Bud,” he said as he made his way over to it, hoping that if it heard that it would not find the energy to attack him for encroaching on its space.

He slowly crouched down in front of the big lizard, the vial held out towards it to see. How he was going to get the Gecko to drink the medicine if it was not interested in it, he wasn’t sure.

He hoped he did not have to wrestle the big lizard into taking it, because he was rather worried about hurting the poor thing.

“Doesn’t it look good?” It didn’t. No potion or medicine looked good.

Maybe the Gecko had questionable tastes and agreed with what he said aloud though? Or maybe it would recognise the medicine as helpful.

Who knows. Not Oscar, all he knew was that he was not being attacked as he creeped the vial closer and closer. Of course, no matter how close the vial, it was no help when the Gecko would not open its mouth.

“Come on, Buddy,” he said, wiggling the vial about in an attempt to tempt it. “Just try it.”

No luck.

Oscar sighed and considered. He really did not want to wrestle the poor guy.

Instead, as a last ditch before he gave in and did something stupid like that, he scooped up a long leaf and proceeded to tickle at the Gecko’s mouth.

He had the vial ready in the other hand and the rest of his body ready to spring back in case it was needed, but with his new big leaf he kept tickling it around the Fire Belly’s face. Tempting it to try to bite it or sneeze, Oscar would take either.

Finally, the Gecko seemed to find the energy to bite at the annoyance and Oscar took the opportunity to upend the vial in its mouth and then quickly skittered away backwards.