Chp 30: Vertically Challenged

Speech Marks Notice 

Following requests I will be switching to using (") as opposed to (') to denote verbal speech. Similarly ' will be used for thoughts whilst, italicised words with a single apostrophe (') will be used to denote conversations with Calcifer, or more broadly conversations between more than one party in Adam's head. Italics no apostrophe (') will be used to denote demon speech or the use of magic spells.

----

Taking a few steps forward, with Calcifer slipping out behind him in her metallic griffin form, Adam came into view of a parapeted ledge three steps later.

"Aaahh".

Instead of being on the outside of Hogwarts which the illusion through the glass suggested, a meadow running up to trees far in the distance, he was instead standing two hundred meters above the black lake, with half a mile between him and the coastline of the black forest.

"I didn't think this through did I".

Vaulting the parapet in landed on the top of a rocky outcropping looking to the side which allowed him to see the bridge crossing towards the main Hogwarts courtyard.

'Well hard luck you can either go back to bed or jump and I don't see that ending well even for you' said Calcifer.

'I see a third option ...' said Adam smiling evilly.

'You have wings don't you' he continued. 

'Yeah, but they're way too small to pick you up, I don't even know if I can fly... I'm metal, me-tal' said Calcifer emphasising the last word to drive her position home.

'Come on give it a go, I want to get out there' said Adam looking over the landscape and breathing in the fresh air. 

'Uh - where did oh my life is so hard I had to fight daemons as a kid go to' replied Calcifer.

'These aren't daemons just some creatures with spiky bits, come on give it a go'.

Calcifer beat her wings slowly but surely gaining altitude off the ground, adjusting their tilt two meters off the ground she moved forward slowly gaining speed and going off the edge before attempting to turn round almost hitting the back of the clock tower as she tried to complete her turn.

'Oh thrones you turn slower than a Trojan support truck'.

'Don't make fun of me ... none of these cogs actually do anything, you try flying on hopes and prayers' shot back Calcifer as Adam roasted her.

'Okay, okay, but here's my plan, we jump to the bridge, then sneak out over that wooden covered bridge on the other side of the courtyard, simples ...step one get on my shoulders'.

Calcifer shook her Griffen head in resignation but climbed up Adam's body nonetheless digging her claws in.

"Ow, not so tight," said Adam aloud.

'Would you like me to drop you' replied Calcifer with a certain malevolence in her voice.

Adam, took ten steps back on the rocky outcrop, forcing warp energy painfully into his calves like the worst lactic acid build-up imaginable, taking a deep breath he bolted.

Thud, thud thud

Adam burst across the rocky crag perpendicular to the parapet, taking off like an Olympic sprinter, jumping as the craggy rock fell away beneath him with a great leap towards the sheer right wall of the chasm, his foot caught friction allowing him to gain, distance, only ten meters away now another step, he slipped skidding down the face. Calcifer's wings beat manically trying to drag them both back up.

Adam's feet managed to gain enough traction, pushing them another three meters towards the bridge.

Another step, almost there.

Adam lunged for the bridge, as the rock gave way in a flurry of gravel.

His fingers missing it by millimetres.

"Oh no" he said suspended for a second in the air as he completed the parabola before plummeting down into the darkness below.

----

'Aaaahhh' he screamed internally as he plummeted through the misty evening air, the darkness obscuring the water rushing up from below.

Preparing for the water to come up and smite him, he channelled the warp into his skeleton fusing the bones in his feet and ankles, before filling out his brain with more fluid as he expanded his skull to fit it in the hopes that more padding would keep him conscious.

Calcifer flapped madly barely slowing them down.

THUD, SPLASH

Adam, hit the water like concrete, his legs fracturing up their length, knocked out cold before the pain could hit him.

----

Adam came to with the knife-like feeling of water filling his lungs as they convulsed trying to gasp for air, only for water to rush in.

His legs weren't working, he desperately breaststroke towards the surface.

Black dots started to form around the corners of his vision as his eyes began to tunnel vision.

'Not like this he thought' blacking out again as his two hearts guzzled the last of his oxygen.

----

An Unknown Time Later 

Adam woke up on the beachfront of the black lake a few hundred meters down from Hagrid's cabin, with Calcifer's griffin body pony jumping on his chest.

An "Urrrggh" was bashed out of him as Calcifer landed expelling the water from his lungs.

Pain hit him like an angry swarm of bees, but only in the top half of his body.

He couldn't feel his bottom half terror gripped him, though it quickly disappeared as he enforced his mental shields.

'Adam calm down, calm, you're alive don't look at your legs you can fix them'.

"U-huh-u-huh" he breathed in and out hyperventilating slightly.

'Okay, okay how did I get to the beach'. 

'You're not going to believe it but well there is some kind of Kraken in the lake and it left you here'.

"A friendly Kraken ... now anything's possible, arrrgghhh".

Adam, took a deep breath in through his still wincing lungs before opening a crack of himself to the warp, reconnecting nerves, defusing bones, repairing fractures, his ankle spinning round a full 180 with a sickening crack as it realigned, his knees popping back into their socket joints as they descended from where they were embedded in his upper thighs.

The pain almost caused him to black out again as he felt his legs again.

"Ohhohooh no hah, I'm not doing that again," said Adam as he got up onto one knee before standing up with a grunt as his still tender tendons spasmed.

"I think the forest can be left to another day," said Calcifer.

'Aye aye captain' said Adam wearily, stepping heavily up the gravel embankment, before trudging his way back towards Hogwarts.

----

Ten minutes later he crossed the higgledy piggledy covered wooden bridge as he made it to the main courtyard. Resting up against one of the sandstone arches he spied filch skulking through the shadows in front of him

"Ohhhh ... No," he said under his breath ducking down and moving behind the cover of the waist-high walls, along the left side of the courtyard opposite to Filch walking along the right.

Suddenly Filch turned left crossing the courtyard.

'Shit'.

Adam looked around for a way out he couldn't cross passed the opening or Filch would see him but he wouldn't make it back fast enough to the bridge without making a noise.

Looking up Adam had an idea, shimmying back to the nearest arch Adam grew claws pulling himself up into the underside of it before forcing his body into the space between the arch, wall and ceiling, stemming against the three surfaces.

The position was painfully awkward, his head forced into his knees.

Adam held his breath as Filch passed beneath him.

'Students out at night, out at night' mumbled Filch under his breath with cult-like fervour.

Once Filch had rounded the bend and gone to walk down the bridge Adam unfolded quietly sliding down the stone face of the wall.

'Even prayers to Saint Celestine aren't going to stop this hurting in the morning' said Adam.

"You don't even observe the imperial creed" called out Calcifer.

"Argh so what it's usually worth a try," said Adam as he limped painfully under the great swinging pendulum of the clock tower and back towards his dorm.

----

Getting into bed he almost slapped himself in his face, when he realised he could have just walked out the front door, so much for security my Sirius, safest school on the planet sure.