Heroes' Journey: To be the Strongest, Be the Weakest

FINAL CHALLENGE

"FINALS. SURPRISE." A loud, cackling laughter echoed from everywhere as the arena was enveloped in a huge, magical dome. A ladies voice twittered over the buzz of excitement.

"In this fiiinal challenge, every student is for themselves! No longer is it school vs school, now the only way to win is to wiiin alone! So, all four students, please chose a corner! You must be alooone in that corner, Miss and Mr. Uagadou! Yes, please separate as Hogwarts has done so quickly! Now, may the challenge, oooh wait... LET THE GAMES...!

"BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hebridean opened his eyes cautiously. The other three contestants wandered towards the centre of the arena, hands on their empty wand-pouches. He clambered up on a rock, looking around.

"Is..." Musculier began, summing up everything that everyone was thinking. "Is something meant to happen?" His words were echoed by the audience. The students walked around, kicking some pebbles. A man in the audience ordered some chips. The air-conditioning rumbled along as usual. "Wait... is the air-conditioning usually that loud?"

"REEEEEEE!" The ground blasted up beneath the arena, and a shape flew up into the air, blasting boulders everywhere. It had a long, scaly body, with two dark grey wings protruding from its back. Its dull, purple underbelly was reflected in shimmering purple eyes. "REEEEEE!"

The woman's voice echoed across the arena. "Did I mention, that to win, you have to bring down a giant, flesh-eating dragon without a wand? Oh deary me. Well, it's just a small detail I suppose. Toodely Doo!" The dragon roared, its breath sending Musculier and Uagadou's only boy flying across the arena. Mandy Tailor from Uagadou took it as her chance. She leapt onto the beast's back, scratching at it with blunt nails. Within seconds she was thrown off. She grabbed her teammate and went right back, Musculier right behind them. Soon, the Uagadou boy had to be teleported out because of severe burns. Mandy took control of the situation, tossing an unwilling Musculier into the path of the dragon. While it was distracted, she pummelled it with rocks. The dragon spun around, sending Musculier flying into a pile of rocks while it lunged at the girl. She too was teleported out. Musculier stood up painfully and hurled a sharp rock at the creature. It howled with pain. But yet the creature stood, and it tossed the rock right back, knocking Musculier unconscious.

"Well," trilled the lady as Musculier was teleported out, "We'll just have to wait for these students to heal and then they'll try again! Hold on: Where's the fourth?" The audience murmured, the final side pointing at a pile of boulders. Hebridean stood up, shaking with fear.

"Teleport me out! I don't want to do this!" He cried, trying to stay out of sight of the beast.

"Teleport him out!" several students yelled out.

"Well, young Hogwarts student," the lady trilled from above, making herself visible on a high platform, "I'm willing to... make a compromise." Hebridean stared up at the lady. She was so high up, that he couldn't make out the details, but she was wearing a pink dress, and had long, straight-as-a-poker hair adorning her back, flowing all the way down to her feet. "Well, Hebridean, I'll teleport you out. But if you stay in... I'll heal your friends."

"Wait! So..." Hebridean noted, "I have to fight it?"

"Well, you don't... have... to."

"But if I teleport out, then you won't heal Musculier or..."

"Right. So, you will fight it, and only when either it, or you, has given in, will your friends be healed."

Hebridean nodded gravely. The audience was shouting out that that was beyond and breaking the rules, and several wizards were trying to teleport in and help Hebridean. All of them failed. Hebridean was shaking like a leaf, pressed against the outside of the arena. Tap, tap, tap! He slowly turned.

"Hebridean, why are you so scared?" the little golden-eyed girl asked. "The others had a reason: they didn't have their wands or brooms. But you? You're rubbish at spells. Your broomstick specialises in doing whatever you tell it not to. You've never cast a spell in your life!"

"Yeah, Magpie," Hebridean snapped sourly, "I'm about to die. I don't need to hear what a failure I am."

Magpie grinned. "Hebridean, just listen! The others, when faced with a foe, cast a spell. They can't do that. They can't do what they do best. What do you do when faced with a foe?" Hebridean sighed.

"I don't do anything. I just hope I can run away in time, and let others deal with it."

"What about when there aren't any others?"

"That's only happened once in my life. And it failed."

"What did you do?"

"I tried to act neutral towards Mucus so he would stop being a bully." Hebridean looked at tiny little Magpie. Her brown hair fluttered freely, blurring his friends' faces from view. "Magpie..." she nodded wisely. "I... I'll try."