Risks & Rewards
Ominis stood there, standing face-to-face with the beast that stood around fifty metres away. He could hear it breathing from how quiet the arena was. He could hear the beast take a step, then another step, and then another.
"Your beast is the graphorn," Professor Weasley explained to Ominis just before he was brought into the arena. It was like a huge wave of relief swam through his entire body at that moment, that his beast was familiar, that he wasn’t completely out of luck yet. Thank Merlin, he thought. Maybe I have a chance of survival after all.
It was approaching him slowly now, his heart beating ten times as fast as the beast’s footsteps. He gripped his wand tighter and tried to steady his breathing. It would do him no good to freak out now. He had to focus.
I just need to get the beast in the cage, he thought. That can’t be too difficult, can it?
But where is the cage?
Ominis followed the speed of the graphorn and slowly took steps backwards, holding out his free hand behind him. It only took him about five steps before his hand met metal bars.
Found it.
He made a mental note of the cage’s location. He knew the graphorn just came from the exit on the other side of the field, and that the cage was said to be in the middle of the field, so there must be another fifty or so metres behind him of the arena. If he wanted to be smart about this, he knew he had to take advantage of the space he was given.
All of a sudden the slow, melodic footsteps of the great beast grew quicker, and louder. They were coming right towards Ominis. With a loud gasp that came out of almost everyone in the crowd, Ominis jolted out of the way at the last second, landing hard on a pile of large rocks. The beast's great horns struck the metal bars of the cage so hard it started to ring in Ominis's ears.
Wincing, he stumbled back onto his feet and quickly made his way through the rocks that were the size of him, trying his hardest to pay attention to his wand's guidance and not trip and fall.
The graphorn let out a deafening roar, forcing Ominis to cover his ears and fall into the side of a rock. He figured he was out of sight of the beast for now, so he needed to think of a game plan quickly.
From his experience - albeit amateur - he knew it was fairly easy to steer a graphorn once you were on top of it and out of its reach. He figured that could be the only way for him to get the beast inside of the cage as quickly as possible. He was being timed, that much he knew. So he had to act fast.
But is that even possible?
It was very risky, he could easily get lost in his direction and miss the cage entirely. He had no idea how big the cage was, how wide the entrance was, any of that. If he had sight this would've been easier, but he was just given the biggest challenge of all. And he had to figure out how to bypass it right now.
Suddenly rocks started flying near Ominis as the graphorn bursted through a boulder that came between him and the beast. Ominis shielded himself with his arms from getting hit, soon realising the beast knew where he was at. He needed to move quickly.
The graphorn's loud, racing footsteps came closer to Ominis. Ominis stuck out his wand just a second later.
"Incendio!"
A large flame flew towards the beast, and Ominis heard it stop in its tracks, retrieving back a bit. He knew the graphorn's skin was thick, and very tough, so fire would do virtually nothing to it and this must have been just a shock factor for it. He knew this would be useless to try again, so he started running to get more distance between them.
He weaved between the large rocks as best as he could, tripping here and there. His heart was beating out of his chest at this point. How am I going to do this?!
The time was ticking, and the cogs in Ominis's brain were rolling as fast as ever. He leaned against the stone structure he was hiding behind and caught his breath, taking another moment to think.
What he really needed to do was survey the scene more closely. He knew where the cage was, but not its dimensions. He needed to be back in the middle of the field.
He could hear the graphorn walking slowly out in the open, so it would be a death wish to go out now. He needed to distract it. If he could figure out how to get the graphorn to the other side of the field...
Ominis got down to his knees and leaned forward, reaching a hand out in front of him to the ground. After a couple taps his hand landed on a decently sized rock that he knew could make a loud enough noise. He slowly, and quietly, picked the rock up and got to his feet. Counting down from three in his head, he then threw the rock over towards his right, hoping it went far enough for the graphorn to not find him.
He heard the large beast rush over where the rock landed and he took that opportunity to run towards where the cage was. All of his faith was going to his wand to not crash into something as he ran, and he was terrified to mess up. But he extended his arm out and eventually felt the metal bars of the cage. He now had both arms out, feeling towards the corner of the cage and then quickly making his way to the other side. It seemed to be pretty decent in length, around 2 metres long, Ominis could say.
He could hear loud footsteps again, as the graphorn had now caught sight of him. He panicked and fell forward, tripping over something on the ground.
The crowd yelled in unison as the graphorn stomped toward Ominis, who was face full of dirt from hitting the ground in the fall. But as the beast was about to hit him, he quickly tucked his arms in and rolled away, missing the beast's horns by mere inches. He took this opportunity to get back onto his feet as quickly as possible and run to recoup.
He knew what he had to do now. The only way to get the graphorn to enter the cage willingly was by force. What better way to force it than to aggravate it?
Ominis mentally prepared himself before steadying himself, feeling a little bit wobbly. He pushed his concern over his own stability aside and focused on what he needed to do. He ran out into the open, knowing the cage was just ahead of him.
The graphorn roared. Ominis turned to face it. He raised his wand.
Strike.
The graphorn bellowed and roared.
Strike.
It began to charge at him.
Strike.
Faster this time. It was getting closer and closer. Ominis started running, and entered the cage. Several gasps and yells came from the stands above, but it was none of Ominis's concern right now. This beast was charging, fast. He was going to enter the cage any second now.
It all happened so quickly, in the matter of a couple seconds. As soon as the footsteps were right in front, and Ominis knew it had entered the cage, he slipped through the thin space between the bars behind him. As he slipped through he made another quick swipe of his wand to slam the cage door shut. But he was squeezing through the bars at an odd angle. His shoulders got stuck. The graphorn slammed right into the bars, hitting Ominis hard on his side.
Luckily, the push of the beast slid Ominis completely through the bars, and he was finally outside of the cage. He fell hard on his back, knocking the wind out of him. The crowd fell silent as Ominis lay on the cold ground, limbs spread out and his wand rolling away.
Everything started spinning in his head. Deafening ringing through his ears made him wince, that coupled with the loud heartbeat from his adrenaline. And when he tried to move his arm, pain seared throughout his body.
But it was finally over. The graphorn was successfully in the cage. Ominis let out the breath he had been holding and decided to try and sit up. He struggled, head beginning to pound against his skull as he steadied himself. And once the crowd saw him stand up off the ground, they began to cheer.
"Oh goodness just take a look at you!" The matron exclaimed as she forcefully sat Ominis down on the cot. He was finally back in the tent, and the adrenaline that hid most of his pain was wearing off now, his entire body feeling like he fell off the tallest part of the castle. "The things they put you children through!"
"I can't move my arm," Ominis explained, wincing as she felt around his body for his wounds. His left hand was limp on his lap. And once the nurse grabbed ahold of it, he couldn't help but yelp in pain.
"Well, no wonder," she said as she poked and prodded her hands over his arm and shoulder. "It appears your shoulder got dislocated. You took a nasty fall, didn't you?"
The recent memory of the graphorn shoving him right to the ground made his hairs stand on end. He could admit it was a stupid idea. He could've gotten a lot more hurt than he did.
"Here," she said, ruffling through what Ominis assumed to be her supplies on a table next to the cot. "I want you to drink this. It's gonna taste a bit nasty for a while, but you'll feel a lot better soon enough."
She placed a bottle in his free hand and he reluctantly put it up to his mouth. It smelled like wet grass mixed with wet dog, and his stomach twisted, but he knew he had to take it. He silently counted to three before drinking its entire contents, immediately wanting to throw it back up. He retched and the nurse patted his back in response.
"There, there. You done it." She took the empty bottle in just enough time before he dropped it onto the floor. "Now, let me take a look at these cuts on you. You look a downright mess. Oh, Merlin, the state of you."
The nurse went to work on the various wounds on Ominis's body as he continued to try and keep the potion down. He could feel a little bit of ease from his shoulder now. Although, that could also be from the nurse prodding his cuts and making him focus on that pain instead.
"Ominis?"
A voice came from the other end of the tent, a girl's voice. The nurse stopped what she was doing, assumingly seeing who had just walked in.
"Well, I'll leave you be for now. Did what I could. I'll be back to check on you shortly. And don't leave this tent." And with that, she walked away, and exited the tent.
"Ominis." The girl stepped closer. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Anne?" Ominis's heart stopped. "Is that you?"
"Yes. I just wanted to check on you. You had us all so worried."
He felt his cheeks flush and he lowered his head, beginning to fiddle with a ripped piece of fabric on his pants. "I'm alright."
Anne stepped closer before taking a seat right beside Ominis. Ominis felt his heartbeat go quicker, and his mouth become dry.
After a couple seconds of silence between them, Anne spoke again. "I am proud of you. You did really well out there."
"Did I?" He asked, quiet and unsure. He felt like he did everything wrong, that there were much better ways to go about the entire thing. Ways that wouldn't have caused him to gather so many injuries. He wondered how low his score was because of it. The other champions were obviously way more capable of sustaining less injuries, possibly even zero. There was no way Ominis would get first place here, or even second for that matter.
"You did. You were brave and smart. I wouldn't have been able to do the same, even if I wasn't..."
"Are you feeling alright?" Ominis figured it was his turn to ask questions now. He wanted Anne to be there for him so badly, but at the same time it worried him immensely. He didn't want her to be uncomfortable. Be so far away from home when she could be in so much pain.
"I'm doing fine, Ominis, I promise." He felt like he could hear a smile in her voice. The change in her tone made him feel like his stomach was jumping up and down. "I know how to handle it. I know my limits."
"I still worry for you, Anne." He was being sincere, and he hoped it conveyed that message clearly for her. He truly cared about Anne. She was all he ever thought about for a period of time, before she left Hogwarts. She understood him in ways no one else had. Not even Sebastian could care about Ominis like Anne could. And Ominis felt like he cared about Anne more than anyone else at times.
"I know." She paused. "I still miss being here, running around causing mayhem with you and Sebastian." Her voice sounded solemn, trailing off from her caring tone she had just before. "Nothing really is the same anymore."
Ominis felt his heart tug. He wished things had been different. That Sebastian never killed their uncle, that Anne was never even cursed in the first place. There were days where he felt so angry at the world for giving them so much pain. Ominis could deal with his own family disowning him for not adopting their ideals, but to watch the one he loved's family fall apart hurt him far too much to handle.
"I'm truly sorry, Anne," he said. "I really wish I could do more. That I could've changed things."
"It's fine. We always have the future." He could hear her smile again. "I'll still be here for you, Ominis. I promise that."
He felt her hand lay gently on his hand in his lap, and his brain raced miles in seconds. He tensed, only movement being his heart about to beat out of his chest. She was just comforting him, he knew that, but it still felt so magical to him in the moment. Just having her here, feeling her touch, made him almost forget everything he just went through moments before. And everything felt alright again.