#6 - To The Rescue!

Kody put a hand to his brow to help him track the progress of the stone -- which wasn't necessary at all. But boy, did it zoom! Perhaps he had hit it a bit too hard.

He listened (and watched) as it dropped into the lake with a satisfying splash. The shimmer made him raise his brows however and Kody felt dumb. Of course, these were magical stones!

And now he got to witness what they did!

He watched, leaning as far as he could over the water and saw how the subtle changes took hold. The water seemed a tad clearer and if he looked around the dock, more details popped out to him. Had that moss always been there?

Kody resisted the urge to poke and prod at it by refocusing on his task.

One stone down and two to go. He quickly aimed his wand again and cast the same spell, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The next stone in the box hovered up and Kody guided it to where he wanted to hit it from. He hoped it was the same sort of place as the first one but it was hard to remember exactly.

Kody grabbed the bat and rolled his shoulders, "This is for the Great Lake! And the plants! And creatures! Yay nature!"

He swung, just as hard as before, and felt the impact vibrate through the bat and up his arm. He grinned and hurried to watch the stone fly over the lake.

Besides being helpful and nice to the Great Lake, this task was a lot of fun too! He made a mental note to thank Professor Rivera later since he figured she had been in charge of setting this up.

There was a much bigger change this time! Kody jumped into the air and yelled in excitement as he rushed towards the end of the dock so he could see it all happening.

Without thinking about it, he stuck his hand into the chilly water and tried to touch any fish or bugs that came nearby. The moss had bloomed and the air smelled amazing! Kody wondered what had caused the Great Lake to go 'bad' and need help.

A question tucked away for later, something to ask Professor Rivera would. He was glad he was helping though since it made him so happy to see the water become healthy again.

The Great Lake was an important home to many plants and creatures, of all shapes and sizes and, once Kody brewed his bubble-head potion, he was going to explore and meet them all!

Remembering that he had one final stone, Kody rushed back to the crate and sloppily dried his hand on his uniform. He aimed his wand again and had no trouble casting the spell for a third time, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

It was so cool to see the stone get caught on invisible strings and move where he wanted it to go. Once it was in place, Kody grabbed the bat for the final time.

"Here goes nothing! Hope you feel better!" He shouted towards the Great Lake and swung. The stone and bat made a crack sound when they met and off it went, sailing over the water.

Kody set the bat into the box and hurried to the end of the dock to watch.

He couldn't wait to see how the Great Lake would look after the third stone had sunk into the depths.

Kody Ashworth lost his mind.

"No way..." It had begun pretty subtle as the information sunk in and his brain processed what he had just witnessed.

"No Way...!" That had been a tentacle. More than one, actually. And they were enormous.

"NO WAY!" Kody jumped and yelled and swung his body around in his excitement. He continued to yell happily, bouncing here and there, flailing his arms. The Giant Squid! Something told to them when they were first years but no one had ever seen!

Kody had seen it! It was there! They waved in the aftermath of the splash and Kody was convinced the Giant Squid was thanking him for helping out.

He had to remember to add this to his journal too!

Would anyone believe him? Kody panted as he calmed down, watching the water carefully and hoping to see more. Everything settled down and the Great Lake looked so much different to how it did when Kody had first come to the Boathouse.

The water sparkled, a healthy colour now and the creatures seemed to be more active. He could see some of them moving past the dock and he crouched, sticking a few fingers into the water and wriggling them. He didn't want to leave just yet but he knew he had to.

His task was done for the day. Kody felt his heart filling with happiness that he had been a part of this.

There was more to do as well, since he had seen more tasks posted by the Professor -- at least, he assumed it was her that had set the tasks. Made sense, since it was her subject too.

Kody let out a content sigh and stood again. There was a strong urge within him to jump into the lake and just bask in it but thankfully, for more than one reason, he fought that urge.

He made sure the bat was back where it belonged and nothing else was out of place before he gave the Lake a final wave from the boathouse and hurried off.

[OOC: Exit]