A Hunting We Will Go [THD ~ Aina]

Valda entered the small, quaint shop that sold a miscellaneous of things. Often, students would come in to buy apparel, school supplies, sometimes even food. The redhead wasn't there for that reason today. She enjoyed the small corner of pet supplies; food, toys, beds, clothes, and even little dishes for them. There seemed to be one for every kind of pet one could imagine, lizards, toads, dogs, owls, snakes, weasels, ferrets, and her favorite, cats.

She had recently purchased a ball that was enchanted to run away from her cat on it's own and would squeak as it did. Sadly, the one she had purchased the previous week didn't squeak. Tsvetok would only chase it if it made a noise. She held the small, plastic toy in her hand as she approached the counter. Informing the shopkeeper of her dilemma, they quickly apologized and went to retrieve her a new one for a replacement from the back.

As the girl waited patiently at the counter, she noticed a small ad propped up on the counter.

Participate in Madame Malldont's Belushya Guba Scavenger Hunt!
Sign up with a partner to complete the hunt. Upon successfully finishing the game in 45 minutes, each participant will win 30 galleons!

Valda was intrigued by the prize money right away. She could finally buy some of her own things without having to feel like a burden to Sasha. She could even send some of the money home to help with medicine.

Madame Malldont returned shortly with the new toy in hand. With Valda's interest peeked on the scavenger hunt, she was interested in participating but didn't have a partner. Valda wasn't about to return to the school to find Lev, Zviad, Dima, Miha, or Lena to help her. She'd feel awkward about it and would probably be fun of too, knowing how they'd initially react to her questions and thoughts. She looked over her shoulder and saw a second year walk past the window shops. The girl's name was still unknown to Valda, but she recognized her from her classes. She did know that this girl wasn't too keen on their subjects besides alchemy. She figured she'd use it to her advantage.

"I'll be right back," Valda told the shopkeeper as she rushed out the door to Aina. She grabbed her arm and pulled her back through the shop doors. "There's a scavenger hunt and I want you to be my partner. If we win, we both win 30 galleons! I'll do your homework for the next two weeks if you do this for me." She pulled her up to the counter, took the quill, and signed, leaving the space open to her name for Aina to sign.

"I see you're interested in my little hunt!" Madame Malldont seemed very pleased and excited. She quickly ducked underneath her counter before Aina could protest and pulled out their first clue. "You girls must complete the tasks or the items from the different shops. Each clue will lead you to a new shop. Here's your first hint:" She hadn't bothered  to wait for Aina to agree to it. She had only assumed she would. "Here is your first clue." She passed a small card to Valda, who in returned, showed the card to Aina.

"Aren't you in for a treat! You'll need to move this assorted candy to the jar by the window. Doing it wrong can leave a foul aftertaste. The catch? You can't use your hands."

Aina liked Belushya Guba. It was such a great place to go and plan her troublemaking schemes, not to mention that there were lots of people that she and Kusti could make fun of.

But this time Kusti wasn't here with her. The Norwegian girl’s best (and pretty much only) friend had been nowhere to be found and after a short period of looking for him, she’d given up and just decided to go to Belushya Guba by herself to gather supplies for their latest scheme. She would have made fun of people too, but that was considerably less fun when she was by herself. So instead the girl had gone and bought some bubblegum, trick candles, and a couple of other miscellaneous things before going on the hunt for a place that sold spray paint. During their previous year, Aina and Kusti had had a lot of fun with spray paint and they'd included it in their latest mischief making plans. In hindsight she should have just asked Kusti where he'd gotten it, but she hadn't and thus she had to figure it out herself.

Aina didn't have much luck, and she eventually decided to check this stupid looking store that sold a variety of things. But before she even had the chance to enter the store, a redhead girl that Aina vaguely recognized from her house burst out of the shop, grabbed Aina, and dragged her into the shop before talking about some idiotic scavenger hunt. Aina snorted. Thirty galleons? Aina didn't really need money, and she was about to say as much when the girl offered to do her homework for her. The second year's mouth snapped shut as she considered the offer.

It was a pretty awesome offer if she thought about it, and it would make more time to mess around with Kusti. She did wish that she could do the hunt with Kusti since it would be way more fun that way, but she supposed that doing it with this odd upperclassman was better than not doing it at all if it meant her homework got done for her. Without saying a word, Aina smugly went to the paper and signed her name as well, noting that the other girl’s name was Valda.

When the other girl showed her the card, Aina groaned internally. She knew exactly what spell would be effective, and it was even a decently easy spell, but unfortunately it was one that Aina couldn't perform. Somewhat frustrated and highly ashamed, Aina finally broke her silence. “This is stupid, I’m not doing that. If you want to move on Valda, you’ll have to do it yourself.”

Aina stubbornly folded her arms while the older girl completed the task for them, and when the next clue was offered, Aina snatched it out of the shop keeper’s hands and read it aloud before showing it to Valda.

“Find the volume of C6H12O6 in the forest of words. Bring your answer to the keeper and he will give you your key to move forward"

This scavenger hunt was exciting! She was a little disappointed in Aina's behavior towards it, but she was glad she was tagging along. "Even I struggled with this spell," Valda informed Aina as they approached the every-flavor jellybeans in the sweet shop. The first one was easy, but the next clue was a little harder.

"Volume of.....Oh! This is sugar! We've got to find a book about sugar and show it to the storekeeper." Valda wouldn't have known that C6H12O6 was glucose if her brother hadn't had left his botanical book open and she had read what the chemical make up was of the sugar made by plants through photosynthesis during summer vacation. Valda allowed Aina to pick the book this time and take it up to the shopkeeper. They were then handed the next clue.

"You ready for this one? It's a little harder than the others, but I'm certain we can do it." In truth, the hint wasn't hard at all. These were fairly easy to learn. Valda couldn't believe it that Madame Malldont was giving away 60 galleons total to those who completed the hunt. Hopefully, Aina was enjoying herself in this little game they were playing. She'd feel awful if, in the end, the girl had drudged her way through. "What's long, brown, and SOMETIMES sticky? Capture you with your own as well as the caretaker of these special items. Hang onto the picture to show Madame Malldont. A picture says a million words." Valda was then passing the card to Aina, but had somehow dropped it. She quickly caught it though before it hit the ground and made sure Aina got it this time. "What do you think that means?"

Oh look at Valda trying to make her feel better, how cute. In a sort of sick, twisted way it did make her feel better. After all, Aina's problem was caused by the fact that she was an elemental, whereas Valda's problem was clearly just that she had been incompetent. “Well your problem and mine are completely different.” She said with a smirk. It was nice to know more than someone who was older than her, and the fact that it was a relatively unknown subject only brought the Norwegian girl more satisfaction.

She didn't even bother to hide her massive eye roll when Valda exclaimed that the chemical formula was that of sugar. No, duh! Aina could have figured out the riddle when she was five years old, though of course she'd been doing alchemy since she was very young age and clearly Valda wasn't as experienced with the subject as the second year was. Aina led the way to the book store and though Valda seemed to want her to find the book, honestly she would have done so anyways. The second year snatched up a book about candy making and brought it to the shop keeper, who of course gave them their next clue.

This one wasn't even hard. What's brown and long and sticky? Well, a stick obviously, but Aina presumed that based on the fact that the starter of the scavenger hunt wanted them to take a picture of 'theirs,' the clue was not talking about actual sticks. "Our wands." She stated, taking off into the streets, not waiting for Valda to follow "I don't know where we're going to get the camera but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it." When they'd made it to a small shop that sold wand care products, Aina saw that they wouldn't have to burn any bridges at all because there was already a camera in the store. Somewhat quickly, the two girls took pictures of each other with their wands and then of the shop keeper, who in turn gave them their next clue.

The girl then went to throw the pictures that they'd taken away but at the last moment remembered that they were supposed to take the pictures back to the starting point of the scavenger hunt. Ugh, why did they have to carry around these stupid pictures? That was a dumb rule in Aina's opinion. The second year shoved the pictures into Valda's hand along with the clue, but not before she'd read it herself. "The knights of olde now guard your clue, check the one whose crest is blue"

Valda had to chase after the girl down the street once she took off to the next clue.. This girl definitely had some spunk in her. They got their pictures taken and then received the next clue. The red head couldn't help but admire the pictures they had taken before reading the clue. Of course, Aina had already slipped away to the weaponry shop, so the 6th year decided to take her time, tease Aina a little in her impatience, as she strolled to the shop.

Upon arriving, she found Aina trying to claim the the next clue, but the shop keeper wouldn't give it to her without Valda being there as her partner. The blue chest reminded her of the blue waters that she'd find herself in the middle of later during the school year once nautical class and club had gone through the safety procedures and the do's and don't about being on a boat. She couldn't wait til that day came.

Valda then went to the counter where the store owner gave her their next clue. "Like a phoenix is reborn from the ashes, you must find your inner phoenix." Though the clue was pretty generic, she knew that they had to start at the beginning and their hunt was now finished.

The girls went back, showing their pictures to Madame Malldont and getting their prize. Valda was pretty ecstatic now that she had some more coinage on her person. She was definitely going to send it home to help Dmitriy care for their mother.

"I know I dragged you along, but thank you for doing it with me. I'll still be doing your homework. You know you can find me in the common room, right? I'm usually there all the time. Don't be a stranger." With those remarks, Valda continued on her way, taking her prize money as well as the replacement toy she had initially came for, and made her journey back to Durmstrang.

The Norwegian girl didn't wait for Valda to be done looking at their pictures before darting off again, and when she'd arrived at the shop it was pretty easy to find the one with the all blue crest, after all it was the only one, but when she grabbed it and tried to turn it in for the next clue she was frustrated to learn that Valda had to be there as well. Ugh, why was Valda walking so slow!? She seemed to be taking her own sweet time and Aina had the feeling that the older girl was doing it on purpose, though it didn't bother her as much as she thought it would have.

She took the time to look around the shop a little bit, examining all the different types of swords and assorted other blades and was reminded that she'd always wanted a sword. Of course she didn't have the money to but one at this point, and even if she did the second year was pretty sure her parents and cousin wouldn't be too pleased. Finally Valda showed up and the shop owner finally gave them their next clue, which Aina was grateful for. She needed to get out of this shop, it was too tempting to see all the swords and weaponry and not be able to buy any, but this time the younger Klyk let Valda lead.

In Aina's opinion the clue was quite strange, but the girls went back to the shop that they'd started at and turned in their pictures and final clue as proof that they'd done all their tasks.

"Congratulations girls!" Madame Malldont said when she'd reviewed the pictures they'd taken "You've completed my little hunt and are even the very first ones to do so! I hope you both had fun completing all my little tasks, here's your prize!" She'd then handed each girl a pouch of thirty galleons, though Aina didn't really care about this prize as much. True, it was nice to have the money, but she didn't really need it and was definitely more excited for her other reward.

"You're welcome, it was actually more fun than I thought it would be." She said sincerely. It was true, and though she still wished she could have done it with Kusti, the second year did have to admit that Valda had made it more fun than it otherwise could have been. But of course the best part was that Valda seemed intent on keeping her end of the bargain. "Alright, I won't be. And I won't make you do all my homework, or at least not alchemy. I can make potions and things like a pro. See you around." Giving the older girl a small smile and an even smaller wave, Aina left the shop and went to find Kusti. She just had to tell him about the scavenger hunt.

[[Aina out]]