#6 - Seeking Ash and Fire

A frown came to his brows as William paused to study the surrounding area.

There were plenty of leaves, which was to be expected considering where he was but there were other things too -- odd marks, signs that something had happened here. He wasn't experienced enough with creatures to deduce if it had been the Fire-Belly Geckos, something else entirely or maybe just students.

Still, it was the first hint of something and William looked up, in the direction the marks continued.

A nearby tree trunk was marked too, so he headed towards it. This led to him spotting a bush nearby that had some scorched leaves which would put him further off the path and deeper into the overgrowth.

Since this was part of a task he was undertaking for school, William reasoned with himself that he wasn't breaking any rules.

Content with that, he followed on and pushed past the bush to check the area beyond. He hoped he was on the right track and would find the Fire-Belly Geckos before it was too late.

It would have been obvious to any simpleton that this was the right place -- lucky for William, he considered himself to have some brains.

The Fire-Belly Gecko that darted past did startle him somewhat. The heat in the air also made him step back, beads of sweat already forming at his hairline and his clothes felt suffocating.

But that wasn't enough to deter him from completing his task.

William rolled up his sleeves and took out his wand and made the bush his first target, "Aguamenti."

Water spurted from his wand and doused the bush but he also aimed it at the ground around the bush to prevent the fire from spreading. If everything was soaked then the fire wouldn't have anything dry to potentially light.

Then his focus went onto the Fire-Belly Geckos themselves. William tried to count them but they moved around quickly. He thought there were four or so.

The first one that came close enough would be targetted with his next cast, "Aguamenti."

He recalled from the information provided for the task that the water wouldn't hurt them but would help them to 'cool' down in more than one way. William liked the idea of helping them out and doing a good job.

Of course, there wasn't anyone around to see what he was doing or praise him but maybe once he had completed everything, Professor Rivera would notice his commitment to Charms.

William aimed his wand at a second gecko and registered for the first time how large they really were. Hopefully, he wouldn't be in any danger from them.

"Aguamenti." He cast, doused a second gecko and then repeating the spell for the third and fourth one.

He lowered his wand and then remembered there was a chest he was supposed to look for. William glanced around the general area and hoped it would be somewhere obvious but understood if the task wasn't that easy.

Walking in a circle, he kept one eye on the geckos in case he needed to cast again while looking for the chest.

William watched how the geckos reacted to his use of the water spell and, despite himself, found them to be rather cute. In a weird way.

He wasn't going to be one of those odd creature lovers, however, and profess his love for all things with eyes, legs, pointy bits, feathers or what have you.

"Well, that is settled." He commented and a moment later spotted the chest as well. Excellent!

William opened the chest and took out the vial of medicine. It wasn't hard for him to determine which of the geckos seemed the largest but he was hesitated for a second.

"You are not going to bite my hand off, are you?" He asked, mostly under his breath since talking to a creature was silly. And William would hate to be considered silly in any shape or form.

He uncorked the vial and approached the creature with slow and careful steps. His wand was within reach as well if he had to use a spell against it or the others.

"Here you go. I hope you feel better." He tipped the vial over the creature and watched the contents pour over its... Scales? Skin? Body? William scrunched his nose and hoped this was just the ticket to get the task done.