Herbology Lesson 5+6: Gillyweed

[Elessar Garrison]

Elessar had a couple tables with several containers of bundles of slimy, greyish-green rat tail-like herbs. He also had several changing booths set up with wet-suits for each student.

"Welcome students, My name is Elessar Garrison. I will be teaching Herbology this lesson. I have a fun lesson planned for you today. This will be a hands-on lesson dealing with a useful herb. The herb is called Gillyweed. It is a greyish-green herb resembling rat-tails. Ingesting Gillyweed gives the person gills to breath underwater and webbed hands and feet. The duration of the effect is one hour when in fresh-water, although Herbologists think the length of duration differs if used in salt-water. The lesson for today is simple. I have some Gillyweed for all of you, and the objective is simple, swim down to the bottom of the lake, retrieve the water-proof portrait of yourself. There are wet-suits for each of you. After you have changed in the tents, you may eat the Gillyweed and proceed with going into the lake." Elessar said after his class had assembled.

((Assignment: RP swimming down to the bottom of the lake. I want a paragraph/post of you swimming down to the bottom, one of you finding the portrait, and the third of swimming back up.))

[Ashur Dastyx]

Ashur made his way down to the lake, having seen the message on the board in herbology. He listened to the instructions intently, nodding to himself as Elessar spoke. Right, it seemed like it would be an easy enough task. However, the thought of something resembling a slimy rat tail sliding down his throat was less than appealing. With a slight grimace, he headed off towards the tents to get changed into his wet-suit.

After changing, the blonde stepped out and approached the tables, eying the containers of gillyweed distastefully before grabbing one and opening it. He pulled his portion out of the container, feeling the slime rub against his hand and mentally shivering. He was not looking forward to this particular task. Ashur gave a meek smile to Elessar Garrison and walked towards the edge of the lake.

"Bottoms up..." He muttered mostly to himself before tilting his head back and dropping the gillyweed into his mouth.

Almost instantly, he gagged; the texture of the slimy gillyweed and the taste really weren't to his liking. He chewed and swallowed quickly to avoid spitting it right back out then dove into the water. The section of lake he had jumped in seemed a little murky at first but, as he adjusted, things seemed to clear up; or maybe he just had some less-than-amazing eyesight. Who knew? As he continued moving down beneath the surface, he noticed a thin, almost transparent web between his fingers on each hand. Glancing down, he noted that his feet were the same way. Ashur found himself able to breathe underwater, as well. He brought a hand to his neck, feeling the gills there. Well, this certainly made things both easier and more interesting. Angling himself downward, he kicked off with his feet and propelled himself towards the bottom, using his webbed hands almost like paddles to push himself along. Long green seaweed and some large rocks greeted the blonde when he finally reached the bottom. He reached out with a hand, feeling the mossy rocks and cringed. More slime...He moved down more until he felt the bottom before straightening himself out.

Ashur started looking around, noting quite a few rectangular shapes sitting up along the lake's bed. He swam for a small group of four, only noticing the faces as he neared; none were of him. With a frown, he turned and glanced until he noticed a few more just a few feet off. Swimming towards them, he was once again disappointed to find out that they, also didn't have his amongst them. He turned and found one a little off to itself near the back of the rock he'd first touched. You've gotta be kidding me... He found himself thinking as he swam for it. Sure enough, right back where he'd started, he found his face staring back at him, practically mocking him for taking so long to find it. After grabbing it, he started back up again.

Ashur could feel the cool water rushing around him as he propelled himself back up for the surface. He really only needed his legs for this part; it wasn't too difficult. And he certainly wouldn't miss leaving the slime behind. As he broke the surface and was greeted by the light, he felt the odd sensation of his skin slowly sliding back to its normal proportions, so to speak. He walked up to the table and set his portrait on it before walking back to the tents and changing once more.