017 // MC ventures into the lair of something dangerous.

It was a usual cold day in Berlin, Germany at 2 degrees Celsius. Elder Lord Black, six and a hundred years of age, studied his heir, his grandson. The boy looked fine and ready for this. He felt fading traces of regret and felt proud of the child of his child. His grandson would make a fine head of the family if he survived this farce of challenge. He had confidence but fear was also present in his heart. He wished he had rejected the challenge, but Noir was insistent and Merula was all but giddy to send boys to death. His pride had been his weakness.

This was the death penalty, not a challenge. But he was confident that Sirius would come at top of this. He looked at the other child forced into this farce and felt a heavyweight in his heart. The lad looked confident on the edge of arrogance, no doubt a doing of his father. Christopher noir was the heir apparent and son of Jacques noir, a fine lad by all measures but not built to face life-threatening challenges.

He was sure he would be mourning a life lost this early when this farce is over. His grandson has already escaped death once and the lad had a spirit of a survivor but a similar couldn't be said for the son of Noir.

He prayed to Mother Gaia to bless both boys to come out alive.

The first challenge of 'Jus sanguinis et primogenitura' was to collect 3 keys using a chosen flying beast in mountains and nearby areas. The hunt would go on for 3 days with them being granted money to buy whatever they needed beforehand on their own to survive in the cold mountains without any outside help.

They had been isolated from their families by Lord Merula, where only Lord Merula's 13 years old son, Donato Merula kept them company and helped them with purchasing their supplies in a German wizarding market.

Christopher hadn't treated Donato well, quipping here and there at his squib status for the whole day they shopped as well as general snobbish 'I am better than you' behaviour. Sirius had tried to talk to his French relative about his behaviour but was rebuffed. He had left him to dig his own grave then.

Meanwhile, he had talked to his distant relative Donato and got acquainted with him. He didn't care about him being a squib. Donato was a pleasant company with none of the arrogance which usually came with one's position on the society's ladder. Being a squib was not pleasant for him in the last few years, he had lost much and only his father shielded him from the ridicule with even servants being rude to him back home.

He purchased appropriate gear and extra supplies needed with the recommendation of the older boy and his geographic knowledge of the landscape and threats. They noticed Christopher trying to listen in to their conversations a few times, but it seemed that the boy's German was not up to the par to keep up if the frustration visible plain of his face was any sign. And Christopher was too proud to ask for help, but Donato gave the boy a list of necessary things which he took while grumbling.

Sirius was ready for the challenge while his mother fussed over him after not seeing him for a few days and was passing his father rather frosty looks, having to leave her infant daughter behind in the care of healers in the villa they were staying in. She was unaware of the nature of the challenges previously; his father had kept important information from her with her already ongoing stressful conditions. Grandfather was no help, staying out of his son's martial quarrels entirely.

Christopher, his sole opponent, and the heir of the Noir family looked overconfident. His father had taken him camping in the mountains before and he was ready for the challenge. No doubt set this challenge, but Sirius was sure that Lord Noir had never endured a day of hardship in his life and thus his son was imagining these snowy peaks to have luxuries accommodations for him.

The 1st challenge begins at the dawn of 1st February, on Imbolc.

Sirius Black was ready with his trusty Abraxan horse, 'Pearl' and his supplies in his trusty satchel hung around his neck to survive.

His opponent Christopher Noir was also ready on the back of his Griffin, whom he called 'Stormtail', which raised a few eyebrows all around and even got a comment from Lord Black about the magnificence of the creature.

-Day 1-

They begin as the first ray of light hit the highest peak of the mountain. They were given a map and a ring that would signal withdrawal from the challenge. When sent some magic into it specifically, it acted as a portkey.

Sirius mounted Pearl in a practised manner, with Christopher getting on Stormtail and they both waited for the signal.

As they saw green sparks they took off. Pearl needed to run a few yards before taking off spreading her majestic white wingspan of about 6 metres.

Sirius directed her towards a mountain that had a forest in a valley below it where their first key would be found. They flew for a few hours, chasing the dawn falling over the mountains. As they neared Sirius studied the map and they were once more on land, but pearl was as able to travel on land as in air, so they didn't need to stop until they reached a cliff from where the beautiful valley was visible.

Sirius looked around for Noir, but he didn't find him, shrugging it off he signalled Pearl to fly down and take them to the point where he could see the symbol of a gate marked on the map.

He dismounted pearl and looked around. He was in a small clearing with the forest at some distance away, suitable to take a break for now. Pearl looked tired after flying for close to 8 hours non-stop. It was about noon if the position of the sun was to be taken into consideration and Sirius doubted that he would be flying in the night as it was beyond dangerous.

They needed some food and he had prepared for these situations; he summoned a few dry branches he could see near him and lit them with a nonverbal 'incnedio', taking out a small sealed earthen pot and putting it on it. He never even took out his wand. The wand was a crutch he used rarely when alone. He was more comfortable with magic in its natural form or using his staff as it helped in casting martial spells with an extra punch in them which his wand or wandless spells were not capable of yet.

He had taken inspiration from the pre-made meals in his last life and readied a few of them as to not waste time looking for food. For Pearl, he dug a crater in the ground and conjured some fresh water in it and took out one of the big baskets of fruits he had packed. Peral's diet consisted of fresh fruits and whatever he she fancied and caught, but for now, he wasn't going to send her away so fruits it was.

He ate his fill and erased traces of their presence and mounted his noble steed. They would travel by foot in the forest. As they entered the forest, the aura of the place changed into something dangerous like they had entered a predator's lair.

Sirius took out is his staff and kept it on ready, his intuition told him that he was invading something's territory. He used a point me to locate the key at intervals. As they moved inwards, he saw a myriad of plants used as potion ingredients and couldn't help himself and collected them on his way while keeping alert of his surroundings. Some of them were rare and collecting them on Imbolc increased their potency.

After about an hour into the forest, he heard a rustle and snapping of twigs. He had just got back on pearl after collecting Blue Fairy moss from a rock. He got ready with a knife in one hand he was previously using for cutting plants and his staff in another.

After a few minutes, he saw a lone wolf staring at him from the distance among the bushes which did nothing to hide its size.

He discreetly cast a few spells on himself and pearl. After a staring match of a minute or two which decidedly felt a lot longer, the wolf lunged at its prey.

Sirius channelled a stupefy from his staff at the wolf, but it barely slowed the wolf. He sent a few more spells to stop the animal in its course while steering pearl backwards. Finally, a powerful incnedio startled the wolf and some hesitation entered its movements.

They rapidly moved away from the wolf as wolfs never came alone. He didn't want to alert whatever dangerous beast that was residing in the forest about his presence as wolfs were common in the region and thus not his real opponent.

After pearl moved at lightning speed and they lost the wolf, they had arrived near a lake that had a serene look to it. Pearl moved to drink water and Sirius noted their location. His point spell was showing that they were nearer to the key than they were an hour and a half ago. He noted the time and saw it was 2 hours afternoon. only a few hours away from the night.

As they were taking a small break while pearl sated her thirst, Sirius was some distance away from Pearl, she was attacked by a wild bear. Sirius instantly sent a lightning spell at the bear in anger. The anger fuelled the spell, and the bear was left charred and not in any condition to move ever. Sirius didn't regret killing the beast, Pearl was precious to him in more than one way.

He checked on pearl and found her mostly unharmed only a small gash on the side which he promptly healed.

They started their trek towards the direction his spell had shown him and arrived at a base of some kind of ancient stone structure. Sirius couldn't see the top of it as it was hidden by the growing planters, effectively hiding the structure from the human eye from above. There was no way to fly to the top of the structure as there was no gap for Pearl to fly.

He dismounted pearl and directed her to find him later by air. She had seen the stone structure and she would find it by air now as abraxan horses were intelligent and his pearl doubly so.

Meanwhile, he would go inside and find the key. He spied some foxes at some distance who were in process of fleeing seeing an unknown element in their territory.

He attached his knife to the base of his staff which would help him in cutting the roots and vines trying to creep upon him.

After walking a few metres, he saw that there was no entrance visible to the structure, so he started looking for hidden clues.

He used some spells used by curse breakers generally to find the clue of anything hidden there. After looking for a while and escaping a venomous tarantula, he finally found a carved rock with some runes on it. He moved near and cleaned the rock with the general use of scogify to read better what was written.

The runes translated loosely into demanding the sacrifice of life essence. He understood at once, the entrance needed blood to open. Now he had been taught to be wary of anything which demanded blood and didn't know what to do. He didn't want to spill his blood which would weaken him and wasn't sure if any other kind of blood would work.

He decided to try the blood of some animal first before taking drastic measures like slashing his palm.

He saw a rabbit nibbling on some grass at distance and sent a silent cutting curse at the creature. He put some blood on the rock before storing some blood in a vial in case it was needed for the exit.

This rabbit would make a delicious meal later, so he stored it in the empty earthen pot he had used for his previous meal. The pot won't let anything in or smell out.

Meanwhile, a patch of land had disappeared and a staircase going down had appeared directly opposite the stone.

He looked inside the opening and saw that the end wasn't visible. After checking for curses, he stepped inside and then after moving a few steps down, he vanished the blood from the stone to close the entrance. It worked like a charm, and he had to duck slightly to not lose his neck.

He conjured a ball of light in his palm and used the knife at one side of his staff to again cut or remove the things growing on the stairs.

It had counted the steps, and it was after about 30 steps that he reached the end. He calculated that he was around 5 metres below the ground. He was in a rundown corridor that had been left to the tender mercy of the elements. As light reached the roof, he heard the movement from above and was greeted by the red eyes of the hundreds of bats. Not something he wanted to fight so he extinguished the light and spelt his eyes with a night vision spell he had once found in an old book of practical pranks he had seen Phineas hiding from their mother. Well, one could learn anything from anywhere.

He moved forward into the corridor, his footsteps were silenced even before he entered the forest and he had dampened his smell when that wolf had found them. After moving some distance which he calculated was approximately equivalent to the stone structure and the entry stone, he found himself in a hall of some kind that was left to decay. There were some portraits of ancient people and some depilating furniture here and there but nothing of note.

He finally had an inkling of whose lair it was, and he didn't want to face that being, so he further donned an invisibility cloak Donato had suggested to him. He had felt this was a frivolous purchase previously but had listened to his guide anyway.

He checked the time and found it was nearing sundown, a very dangerous time in a dark forest. Another point me spell directed him towards a staircase going upwards and he took it. He reached another hall, and this was decidedly on the ground floor as Sirius noticed boarded up windows blocking any kind of light.

A movement caught his eye and he stared at the being he was trying to avoid as the being looked around sensing something disturbing its peace.

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A/N - So, who can guess what our MC is facing?