Call of the Undine

"Such madness born from a brilliant mind." Indiana remarked, deciding not to inquire further. He wasn't keen on learning more about Hannibal Lector anyways. The character almost reminded him of Dr. Baldhead aka Faust from the Guilty Gear fighting game series that he used to play a few times.

"I guess that name could very well fit with the giant octopus." Indiana remarked as he closed the trunk before adding. "What's the giant squid named then?"

"Well according to Lawrence Clay, Hagrid named the squid Sebastian but we decided that's a dumb name for a squid. Me and Hilary agree that Sebastian is a name that better fits a crab or something, so we ended up naming the squid Christopher," Shelby smiled. "In honor of a goldfish that I accidentally killed when I was five."

"Ouch, that must have been unpleasant." Indiana replied, his eyebrows raised a bit. He decided to avoid going further into that matter.

"I guess there are some names that are more suited than others in regards to the perspectives of the entities and their individual character." Indiana remarked. "Regarding the giant octopus, there's the possibility for a name change since the gender is unknown."

"It wasn't unpleasant. I was trying to help him. I saw this movie called Finding Nemo and it said that all drains lead to the sea and I thought he might be happier there," Shelby found it difficult to explain the way her five-year-old mind worked. "So, I flushed him down the toilet."

"And there is no way that the octopus is a girl," she said stubbornly, "Only a boy octopus could have eyes as creepy looking as the ones you said it had."

If Indiana was surprised at what he had just heard, he didn't show it, though his eyes slightly widened. He then reminded himself that Shelby was only five so she didn't know about what would actually happen.

"It's alright, Shelby. I mean, you didn't intend for such a tragedy to occur since you didn't know on what could happen. As for the goldfish, he went to Heaven and probably got some new assignment of living life and is probably back in the world again but this time as something else."

He decided not to argue about red eyes being a stereotypical masculine trademark.

"Tragedy? Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy, this is just funny. I guess I was upset when I realized that I didn't have a fish anymore, but that was six years ago." Shelby laughed. "Poor Christopher though. What a terrible way to die," she couldn't think of a less appealing way to die.

Indiana sighed a bit before he remembered something in regards to the red eyes remark that Shelby made.

"Well, Christopher is probably reincarnated as a polar bear or a blue whale." the youth replied lightly.

"I just remembered that females can also have demonic red eyes, especially women. Just watch either the Japanese horror movie Ju-On or the American version called The Grudge whenever you get the chance. Kayako Saeki is a very malicious ghost with red eyes."

"That's fiction, so it doesn't count. Besides, real ghosts don't have an eye color," Shelby countered. "If you want a real life example, Voldemort had red eyes and he was certainly not a female."

She tried to think of a way to find out the gender of the octopus. She considered asking Professor Williams, like she had to find out the same thing about the squid, but she was fairly certain that the professors didn't know that there was an octopus in the lake. "I suppose if he really is a girl, we can always just shorten Hannibal to Hannah," she said. "But I still think it's a boy."

"Yeah, I guess so." Indiana replied. "I really don't even know how to tell the gender for sure, despite encountering it briefly."

The youth shuddered a bit as he recalled the huge denizen of the lake with its crimson eyes. Whether the faculty knew of its existence or not remains in question.

"In any case, I'm heading back to wash up." Indiana spoke as he closed and hauled the two trunks away. "Unless of course, if you want to have another round."

"It would probably be easy enough to find out, as long as someone was willing to try to get near its area of the lake," Shelby said, not particularly willing to volunteer for the position. "There has to be a book in the library that tells you how to find out those sort of things."

Shelby grinned. "I wouldn't be opposed to another round, but it's up to you. Just keep in mind that no matter how hard you fight, I'm going to win. I promise I'll play fair this time though."

"No need for fairness. Just don't make it look like we're dueling." Indiana replied as he left one trunk with Shelby before taking the other one and backing away to create a good enough distance of twelve meters between them.

It looked like a standoff for a moment before Indiana swiftly opened the trunk with one hand and grabbed a water balloon before throwing it hard at Shelby while yelling "Protego!", casting a barrier instinctively.

Whether he could improve his speed-casting rate depended on the course of this match.

Shelby felt like she was in an old cowboy movie as she stared Indiana down. She grasped her wand tightly, wondering if she should make the first move. Suddenly, Indiana moved and her mind barely had time to register that he had thrown the first balloon.

She reacted instinctively, shouting, "Protego!" The balloon burst as it hit her shield. She opened her own trunk, grabbed a balloon and hurled it back at Indiana.

The incoming balloon slammed into the Shield Charm that he had cast earlier and Indiana simply grabbed another water balloon before throwing it at Shelby.

"Protego!" he quickly chanted, bringing forth another barrier to replace the first. While maintaining the Shield Charm with one hand, Indiana quickly grabbed another water balloon with his other hand before throwing it. Rather than wait for the return fire, the youth repeated the process once more, sending a total of three water balloons into the air.

"Protego," Shelby said. It effectively blocked the first two balloons but her concentration wavered and the shield disappeared before the last balloon reached her. In one fluid motion, she sidestepped to avoid it, grabbed a balloon and threw it at Indiana. She three more balloons, only slightly varying the speed, as she tried to think of a way to get one to hit him. It was going to be difficult since he seemed to be thinking ahead, casting his shield charm before she even threw any balloons.

She couldn't tell from this angle if the shield was just in front of him or if it extended over his head but she figured it was worth a shot. She took one last balloon and threw it in an arch, watching as it ascended in a gentle curve and came back down toward Indiana.

Thinking that maybe he had the right idea, she cast another shield charm to prepare herself for whatever he might do in retaliation.

Indiana managed to deflect the incoming balloons before his shield gave out and left him open.

"Protego!" the youth chanted, quickly casting a Shield Charm to deflect the remaining projectiles. Unfortunately, an overhead balloon slammed onto his head but Indiana shook it off, not wanting to lose focus before seeing a branch with some ripe walnuts above Shelby's head. She was also standing on a patch of exposed dirt, giving him an idea.

"Protego!" he chanted once more, reinforcing his defense with another Shield Charm that he moved slightly about in place by turning the wrist of his wand hand before grabbing water balloons and sending four of them in rapid succession. The first balloon nailed towards the branch with walnuts at high velocity that would cause the walnuts to fall upon impact. The second and third balloons, sent together, were aimed at the patch of dirt she was standing on with the purpose of making her ground a bit slippery. The fourth went directly at Shelby.

As he maintained the shield charm after sending the three water balloons at their intended destinations, Indiana grabbed two more water balloons, holding their ends with his free hand, before stepping into a clearing, feeling the grass underneath his feet as he awaited an opening.

Shelby hardly noticed the walnuts falling around her- she was far two focused on the two balloons heading toward her feet. They landed a split second apart. She grasped her forgotten wand in her hand as she instinctively took a step back, not noticing that the walnut underneath her foot was slipping on the wet dirt until she fell backwards.

Somehow, the fourth balloon missed her as she fell. She sat in shock, staring at her legs lying in the dirt, completely unaware of Indiana moving at all.

Seeing Shelby lose her footing, Indiana sprinted towards her like a madman while throwing both water balloons at her simultaneously. As the projectiles sailed at Shelby, Indiana quickly sprang into the air towards her trunk while making sure that his wand hand that still held the active Shield Charm was facing her just in case. As he passed by Shelby's trunk amid his jump, Indiana grabbed hold of the handle before landing and running backwards with the trunk towards his location.

While he would not attack Shelby when she's down, Indiana would at least deprive her of the water balloons.

Shelby didn't blink as the two balloons hit her. She scooted backwards until she was on the grass and did her best to wipe the dirt off her legs without touching them. "Well played," she said quietly as she got to her feet, not making eye contact. She wasn't entirely sure that Indiana could hear her as she continued, "I have to go."

She turned and ran back to the castle, not planning to stop until she reached her destination.

Indiana could sense something amiss when he saw Shelby sprint into the castle once it was over. The atmosphere felt hollow the moment he heard her speak, hearing a faint cold edge, and the youth knew that his tactics had been overkill. He thought that she would see the incoming projectiles and evade despite being on her back but the youth assumed wrong.

Indiana didn't have to be told to know what he had done. Taking a deep breath, the youth stayed outside until nighttime came to calm his mind of the fog of war within before eventually taking the two trunks and headed back to the castle silently.

Shelby went back down to where she and Indiana had been practicing and was not surprised to see that he was no longer there. She'd been hoping that he would be so she could apologize for running off but since he wasn't, she decided to perform the task she had gone there to do.

She set her school bag down on a patch of grass and took out the small plastic bag and pair of gloves that she'd brought with her. She left one glove on her bag and put the other on her right hand. Then, she set to work picking up the pieces of balloon that they had left behind with her gloved hand, placing them into the plastic bag. She didn't want to leave them laying around for too long, lest an animal find them, think they're dinner, and choke on them.

When she had gathered all the pieces, she collected her things and went back up to the castle to dispose of them properly.