<font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
January 13, 2012 9:56 PM
Game Two: Pecari vs Teppenpaw by <font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
The second match of the season would prove interesting, Amelia believed. Like Aladren and Crotalus, they were fairly evenly matched, and as neither of them had made it to the finals in the last several years, both would be eager to prove they were better than the other.The other thing she found particularly fascinating about this particular match up were that there were a number of family groups playing against each other. Ms. Amira Thornton was still on medical leave, unfortunately, so she would not be facing Ms. Arista Thornton on the field today. Mr. Andrew Duell, however, would be facing his first cousin, Ms. Jhonice Treveor. Also, it would be the first time in Sonora history that two Pierce branches would go head to head, with Mr. Jose Hernandez representing California and Pecari while Mr. Derry Pierce represented Boston and/or New Hampshire and Teppenpaw.
She had chosen to wear red today, in part because Crotalus was already eliminated and it showed no bias toward any of the remaining competitors (which was perhaps more important for this game now that Derry was transitioning into her own branch), but mostly because the color had grown on her since she became their Head of House and she liked this robe. It was warm, which was particularly important when flying around outside in the middle of January. She had accessorized with a silver scarf, black gloves, and a matching red hat. The warming charm was not visible but no less important because it was quite cold out today.
There had certainly been games in colder weather, but it was the first time this winter the temperature had dropped down to single digits, so it felt particularly cold after the fairly mild weather they'd been having. Fortunately, everything else was in their favor. There was no snow to reflect light and blind people, the light cloud cover also protected players and spectators alike from the sun's glare, and the lack of precipitation would keep lines of sight clear.
She stood in the center of the pitch, awaiting the captains to finish their pre-game speeches. Like in the previous game, there was the potential that one of those speeches would be the last one given by that particular captain. Captain Hernandez, like Captain Carey and Captain Stephenson, would be graduating at the end of the year. She gave them a little longer, then called them over as they both finished before she decided to take pity on the freezing spectators.
"We've gathered here today to witness the second game of the Sonora Quidditch Season, featuring Teppenpaw, captained by Ms. Kirstenna Melcher, versus Pecari, captained by Mr. Jose Hernandez. Would the captains please shake hands."
She waited until they had done so, dismissed them back to their respective teams, and then continued, "The winner of this game will advance to play Aladren in the Final. Game ends when a seeker catches the snitch." She released the snitch as she said that, and then also freed the bludgers into the air. Finally, she picked up the Quaffle. "Game begins on my whistle. Three. Two. One. Tweeet!"
She threw the Quaffle into the game and the match had begun. She picked up her broom and followed the players into the air.
Subthreads: Let's go Pecari! by <font color=brown>Cap'n Jose, Chaser</font> with <font color=yellow>Captain Kirstenna,Keeper</font>, <font color="brown">Demelza Eagle, Beater</font>, <font color="yellow">Laurie S., Chaser</font>, <font color ="yellow">Andrew Duell, Chaser</font>, <font color =brown>Jhonice Trevear, Chaser</font>, <font color="brown">Mellie Goodwin, Chaser</font>, <font color=yellow>Arista Thornton, Chaser</font>, <font color=brown>Sophie Jamison [Keeper]</font>
Seeking a success. by <font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font> with <font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>, <font color="brown">Mel Eagle, Beater</font>, <font color="brown">Jade Owen, Seeker</font>, <font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
Recentering and Recap by <font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font> with <font color="brown">Mel Eagle, Beater</font>, <font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
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<font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
Game Two: Pecari vs Teppenpaw
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<font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
January 14, 2012 11:01 PM
Seeking a success. by <font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
At some point in the distant past, it was possible that Kate’s ancestors had come from a place where it was sometimes very cold. If that was in fact the case, Kate saw why they had left. She did wish, though, that if they existed, they could have left her some trace of cold-enduring genes, but if there were such things (her grip on the science of genetics was loose to say the least, though she was increasingly convinced that ambition was a product of heredity rather than environment), generations of Laynes in South Carolina had caused them to lose effect long before Kate had happened to do a lot of growing up in a warm part of California.Since Sonora’s weather was charmed into having a little more variation than its surroundings suggested, this meant that today, she was finding it easy to avoid being nervous about the game. That was more thought for the future than she could really have when her first concern was whether or not she was going to freeze to death before the game even began. It occurred to her, as Kirstenna spoke, to put a warming charm on herself finally, but she wasn’t sure how much good it did. She was already chilled through, it felt like, and she wasn’t that great at Charms anyway.
Kate hoped it helped, though, because two things were at stake here. One was Teppenpaw’s chances at the Championship, where she could finally have another chance to beat Arnold Carey (at this point, she thought the Aladrens had built themselves up into enough of an ogre, probably helped along by how many members of the team belonged to the same family with the interesting reputation, that beating Arnold would probably make her undistinguished record as a Sonora Seeker be completely forgotten about, all but guaranteeing her a place as one of the Great Seekers of Sonora. Or at least an honorable mention on the 'okay' list.) and Teppenpaw to…not completely look as bad as they did right now in the House Points competition, anyway. The other was her chance to just win something, and not get beaten by a first year. Especially a first year who was supposed to be the reserve, for crying out loud. That would just be embarrassing.
Finally, it was time for kickoff. Hopefully, flying would help warm her up, too, though she was pretty sure her nose was going to be completely numb and an interesting shade of red by the time this was over. Going up, above the level the rest of the game began to settle at in the hopes of avoiding Bludgers a little longer, she looked around for the Pecari Seeker. Even though she was a first year and Amira Thornton had, for whatever reason, originally been thought of as better than her, that didn’t mean she couldn’t get lucky. It would be tempting fate way too much not to try to keep an eye on her as well as an eye open for the Snitch, especially since it felt like the day the Snitch might decide to appear in the first few minutes of the game. Because it felt like that day, it almost certainly was not, in fact, anywhere near the time when that might happen.
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
Seeking a success.
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
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<font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
January 16, 2012 11:00 AM
Seeking a seeker by <font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
Derry arrived at the Pitch after a good breakfast and a reasonably good night's rest. Anxiety for the game and for what his life as a Boston Pierce might be like had woken him a couple of times but he wasn't tired anymore when he climbed out of bed in the morning, and that was what mattered most. His broom was in good shape - he'd tended to it just last night so there would be no bristles out of place or anything for today's game. Since neither Teppenpaw nor Pecari had recently had Daniel Nash for a captain, he thought his two-year-old broom, the Derwent IV, was probably one of the best ones on the field today.He pulled the heavy winter Quidditch robes tighter around himself as he headed out onto the Pitch and eyed the Pecaris' cups of hot chocolate a little enviously. It was cold out, certainly, but he had grown up on the peak of a mountain in northern New Hampshire. A simple warming charm was enough to stave off the worst of the chill.
He nodded through Kirstenna's speech and as she went over to the coach to shake Jose's hand, he added to Ben, "I'll cover the seekers first, I guess." They didn't have time for much more planning after that because Coach Pierce started releasing balls and then blew the whistle. He took to the air, keeping tabs mostly on Kate Bauer and the two Pecari beaters. Demelza Eagle in particular grabbed his attention when she tried to send a bludger with bruising force in Kate's direction.
Derry prevented it from reaching her. Demelza had hit the metal ball with bruising force so the best he was able to do initially was deflect and even that sent painful vibrations up his arms. He wasn't a tiny first year anymore, but he was still barely fourteen and not nearly as large as Demelza Eagle was. He didn't let that stop him from running after the deflected bludger though, sheparding it around until he he was pointing the right direction and at a good distance from Jade Owen. At that point, he pulled back his own arm and swung hard at the Pecari seeker.
He felt a little bad about that. Jade was just a little first year, and a girl to boot. Derry was fourteen, making him both older and bigger than her, and a boy. Chivalry would have, under ordinary circumstance, found such a move to be utterly abhorrent. Quidditch, however, did not observe the rules of chivalry. The fact that they did not apply here did not mean he couldn't feel a little bad about it, though.
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<font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
Seeking a seeker
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<font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
January 16, 2012 5:55 PM
I appreciate it. by <font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
Kate was looking for Jade Owen, but what she saw was a Bludger heading toward her. Oh, fantastic. The Pecaris were going to assume that the best defense was a good offense when it came to their first year Seeker, which meant there was at least an even chance that she was going to end up, at some point during or immediately after this game, being carried to the medic.She was a Seeker, and that meant accepting the very good chance of being in a certain amount of pain by the end of each and every game. She was okay with that. She was not, however, either masochistic or flat-out crazy enough to want it to happen, and unless it was the only way to catch the Snitch, she was going to avoid any hit she could possibly avoid taking. She began trying to fly away, trying to strategize quickly about how to avoid the death ball.
Then Derry, bless him, swept in and took care of it, sending it instead off toward Jade. Probably not easy or pleasant for him, considering that Demelza girl would have been fearsome in any school that didn’t include Edmond Carey and still wasn’t anything to sneeze at, but the Bludger was heading away from her and toward a Pecari, and better yet, the Pecari Seeker. That was the way they wanted things to go for now.
“Thanks, Derry!” Kate called, flying off in the other direction, now. Near Jade wasn’t the place to be when she had a Bludger after her, and she didn’t want to be too promising a target, if she could help it, for the Pecari Beaters if one of them managed to get in the way of Derry’s shot and try to save Jade. They didn’t have two backup Seekers, so she had to take care of herself and just catch the Snitch as quickly as she could.
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
I appreciate it.
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
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<font color="brown">Mel Eagle, Beater</font>
January 16, 2012 8:55 PM
Well, frankly, I don't (WotW) by <font color="brown">Mel Eagle, Beater</font>
Okay, it wasn't totally unexpected that Teppenpaw's beaters would both be on the alert for protecting their seeker. That knowledge didn't make Mel any less angry when her shot was deflected. A much smaller beater came out of what seemed like nowhere and took a shot at their seeker. Well, that couldn't happen! Mel flew as fast as her broom would allow to head over in Jade's direction and deflect the bludger away from her and back at Kate Bauer.The hard part of this was deflecting the bludger softly, and in the right direction, so then she could get the best hit possible off it when she sent it back Kate's way. She also had to angle it right so that it wouldn't head back to MiniTeppenpawBeater. As her bat made the lightest possible contact with the metal ball to send it spinning sideways towards the ground, Mel couldn't help but laugh slightly under her breath. Had that ball been hit by someone with real strength, like a professional, there was no way she could have stopped it so easily. Teppenpaw clearly didn't treat their beaters right. The amount of weight lifting, push-ups, pull-ups, body building, and general arm work-outs Mel required Dem to do with her ensured that they were ready to beat the crap out of ever bludger they came in contact with. Mel wanted to be a professional--training was no joke.
The tall beater rushed forward in the direction she sent the bludger moving, pulled her left arm back, and shot the bludger right back at the opposing seeker. The bat made a sound often described as 'terrifying', or, in the case of when it crushed bones, 'disgusting'. But, to a beater, it sounded glorious. Hopefully, MiniTeppenpawBeater wouldn't be there to deflect it, because then a beater war would certainly happen. Mel gave no mercy.
On the other hand, she really hoped that Dem was watching the other bludger and making sure that none of their chasers were being knocked out, 'cos that would really suck.
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<font color="brown">Mel Eagle, Beater</font>
Well, frankly, I don't (WotW)
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<font color="brown">Mel Eagle, Beater</font>
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<font color="brown">Jade Owen, Seeker</font>
January 18, 2012 6:57 AM
I don't care either way by <font color="brown">Jade Owen, Seeker</font>
Gloating wasn’t attractive, or so Jade had heard. Naturally, she would deny ever having made attempts at being attractive, but she had kept her jubilance to a minimum when around Amira, the second year Pecari who had originally been placed as starting Seeker. In Jade’s honest and most humble opinion, the other girl didn’t really deserve to be Seeker, since she’d fallen off her broom in the try-outs, but maybe she’d played really well last year or something (though the fact that Pecari hadn’t made it to the Quidditch finals didn’t offer any support to this second theory). Amira, then, had been off bounds, but Jade hadn’t restricted her gloating in any other arena. Her favourite target had been Elijah, who was the other reserve Seeker at the start of the year. He had flown into a goal post in the try-outs, so, really, it was only actually fair that Jade got to play Seeker in the first game, considering she’d been the only one of them who had shown any real aptitude at flying.That had been at the start of the year, when Jade was still getting re-accustomed to flying a broom, and learning for the first time how to use one that was less than two decades old. Since then she’d had months to get much better as a flier, and admittedly she didn’t have the school Quidditch playing experience of Teppenpaw’s Seeker, but then Jade had first been on a broomstick when she was four years old. She had that in her favour, along with the fact that she personally had more tenacity than the entire of the Teppenpaw team put together.
On the morning of her first ever real Quidditch game, there were people with chattering teeth at every corner. Having grown up in New York, Jade was used to cold winters. She was wearing two pairs of socks, leggings under her pants, and several layers on her torso before her Quidditch robes were donned. By the time she’d had a hot drink and a warming charm cast upon her, she felt positively mollycoddled. Her parents certainly wouldn’t have made this much fuss about their children being out in the cold, and she would be exercising on her broomstick, anyway (as much as one could exercise without really moving all that much). She thought she would be very comfortable this game, and as she took up the broomstick from the school shed that she’d marked as hers – it had a J and a star shaped carved into its wood, near the tail – she would even admit to feeling excited.
Jose’s pre-game speech was endearing. Usually when she heard the instruction ‘keep Jade safe’ issued, the mischievous young witch would find some way of making this as difficult as humanly possible for those charged with her protection. Today, however, it seemed likely that her personal safety was already in jeopardy – one of the occupational hazards of being a Seeker – and hence it was probably best to let Mel and Dem do their jobs. Although scars could be cool, the fewer bruises she had to nurse after the game, the better she would enjoy her inevitable round of victory gloating. The additional knowledge that Kate had never caught a Snitch during a game simply made the first year more determined to beat her older counterpart, because if Kate were to win this game, then Jade would be the first Seeker she’d beaten, and that wouldn’t look good for the Pecari at all. Besides, she really wanted to be the first person to beat Arnold Carey to the Snitch – the look on his face would be priceless! – and she could only do that if Pecari got the play in the finals. If she won this game, Captain Jose would just have to let her play again, right?
When the whistle blew, Jade kicked off from the solid ground, and flew in the direction she’d already chosen once the balls had been released. It so happened to be the same direction that Kate had chosen, which was annoying, because Jade liked her space. Still, she wasn’t going to change her own ideas just to fit in with someone else’s plans, so she set about looking for the Snitch, only to be distracted by a pretty much continuous Beating of Bludgers. Chancing a look round, Jade realized that being in the same area as the other Seeker was annoying for another reason: their Beating Opposition could just redirect hits with comparative ease. Well, that settled it. Jade wasn’t remotely phased by the prospect of being hit by a Bludger, and this was something the other teams were going to learn to their detriment, she was sure of it. With multiple experiences of being thrown off horses, falling in briar patches and other dangerous situations in which adventurous children were bound to end up, plus the developments in Healing spells, Jade had no fear of pain. Neither had she a fear of falling (although she liked to believe she was competent enough to not let go of her broom for any reason, anyway, other than maybe to catch the Snitch, in which case falling would be totally acceptable). In fact, it was her fearlessness, coupled with no forethought of potential implications of her actions, that was going to make her the best Seeker Sonora had ever seen.
However, that didn’t mean she was just going to let the opposition hit Bludgers at her all game long. She wasn’t going to be a sitting target for anyone when she had far more useful things to be doing. Turning her broom (it was so much easier when your equipment did as it was told), Jade headed off to the other end of the pitch. Maybe beginners’ luck would be in her favour and the little golden ball would flit in from nowhere at an easy catching distance. Not too easy, though – she didn’t want people to say she hadn’t earned her glory. And not too soon, either; she wanted to enjoy playing her first game for a short while at the very least.
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<font color="brown">Jade Owen, Seeker</font>
I don't care either way
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<font color="brown">Jade Owen, Seeker</font>
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
January 18, 2012 3:29 PM
Okay, guys, all Bludgers that way! by <font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
Kate was looking for the Snitch, and so she didn’t see the Bludger heading toward her, but she did hear it just in time. She ducked automatically, down toward her broom handle, and rolled away in the air, flying sideways, before lifting her head slightly and flying straight up. There were limits to how far out they could go, but not to how high, that she knew of, anyway.It was always, she thought, hard not to look back. She wanted to turn around and see if it was coming after her, if a Beater had intercepted it and she just hadn’t heard the crack, but she knew that would slow her down, which would increase the chance of getting hit. Maybe it was possible that a Seeker could be good enough to just fly on without missing a metaphorical step while not looking ahead, but she wasn’t that good; when she wasn’t looking ahead, she slowed down a lot, and knew she might well end up coming to a dead stop just because she lost focus on moving. So she had to look ahead and keep moving.
Finally, though, she did turn and glance back, breathing a little faster after her rush away from the Bludger. Right now, she was safe. Or at least thought she was. Anyway, she neither heard nor saw the Bludger right this second, so she could look for the Snitch. And Jade, just to be sure she wasn’t diving like crazy for the Snitch and being right on top of it and making Teppenpaw losing the game.
She wasn’t, though; she was just at the other end, looking around for the Snitch. Right now, all was well. She just had to decide whether or not she was going to go down to the other end to stay close to Jade. Right now, she thought not. It was risking a Bludger, but it might also send the Pecari Beaters down the Pitch to defend their Seeker, or send all the Beaters back into the game. Not so good for the Chasers and all, but better for her (and for Jade, but hey, no one could ever have everything). If another Bludger came toward her, she might reconsider, but for now, she guessed this was worth a try. It could get weird, dull, or ridiculously intense when Seekers spent too much time together in a small area, and increased the chances of them getting into a race. That could be exciting in a good way, but it could also get messy, especially if the Beaters tossed all restraint to the winds and just went crazy trying to knock one of them out. They might both end up being carried off the Pitch on stretchers if that happened, kind of the way she remembered from the big Crotalus-Aladren final in her second year, only worse. Teppenpaw and Pecari hadn’t even had a chance in years, the first year technically-a-reserve Seeker might want to prove herself as much as Kate did and they all wanted to beat Arnold, and the three third year Beaters were getting bigger, so maybe it could be bloody if everyone just decided they really wanted it to be. Kate didn’t, but she wasn’t a Beater.
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
Okay, guys, all Bludgers that way!
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<font color="yellow">Kate Bauer, Seeker</font>
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<font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
January 19, 2012 11:51 AM
Working on it by <font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
Derry watched in dismay as his return volley at Jade moved the bludger right back into Demelza Eagle's hands. Not good. So very not good. His hands still stung from the last of her shots that he'd blocked, but Kate would hurt far worse than his hands did if Eagle hit her with a bludger. With intent to stop that from happening, Derry watched the bigger beater manipulate the bludger, flying around to get a good shot, but Derry tried his best not to let her have one. He delayed her for a little but then he zigged when he should have zagged and a terrible crack sounded across the Pitch.The black ball was coming in fast and hard. Derry yelled, "Kate!" and she fled. It took Derry's best flying to position himself between her fleeing form and the incoming bludger. He held his bat in both hands, gritted his teeth, and grunted as the bludger ran into the wood and splintered it. Derry's eyes stung as he took the bludger in the chest, but the bat had taken the worst of its momentum and he didn't think he'd gotten any worse than a bruise from the impact. It pushed him a fair amount backwards, too, but his legs had a good grip on his broom and it came with him. Using the bat fragments, he more shoved the bludger away from him than hit it away. It didn't seem very impressed by that and started coming back but it just didn't have enough speed to do more than bounce harmlessly off the bat fragments again.
Abandoning the shorter piece to gravity and the Pitch ground, and not really having time to mourn the bat that had served him faithfully since Ben gave it to him, he repositioned his hands around the larger bat piece and gave the bludger another whack, down and away, not toward anyone (even if she hadn't wisely fled the scene, he wouldn't have dared go after Jade just now), and especially not toward him or Kate or Ms Eagle. A few more splinters of wood fell after the ball. There was already a long crack down the middle of what was left, too. This was not a long term solution. He needed a new bat before this one totally fell apart and he was left to defend his team's seeker from bludgers using his bare hands (gloved hands, really, but he doubted it would help Kate either way).
He brushed a bead of sweat from his face, and his glove came away red. He blinked at it breifly and realized his cheek was stinging pretty bad. Between the numbing cold, the bat's destruction, and the direct hit to his solar plexus, he hadn't immediately noticed that a piece of wooden shrapnel had managed to hit exposed skin. He thought it would be okay until the end of the game, though. It wasn't bleeding that bad. The more pressing concern was his bat.
"Coach!" he shouted and waved the broken piece he had left over his head, trying to get her attention. He took a few moments to fill his lungs - he was feeling a little breathless from the chest hit - then yelled again, "I need a new bat!"
At least Kate had gotten clear for the time being.
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<font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
Working on it
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<font color=yellow>Derry Four, Beater</font>
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<font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
January 19, 2012 9:10 PM
Seriously? by <font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
The game was going reasonably well. She wouldn't say the game was on the same level as the Aladren/Crotalus one had been, but the two teams were well matched and pulling off some plays that the crowd seemed to be enjoying. The Quaffle once almost made it to Kirstenna but it was largely staying over on the Pecari side. She was keeping an eye on it, especially when the noise from the crowd picked up, but she was also watching the drama play out around the Seekers.It was one of the challenges of being the game's single referee - to watch for goals while also making sure the other players were not literally killing each other. It looked like Demelza Eagle was trying her level best to at least maim Kate Bauer. And despite being outsized and outexperienced, Four was doing his level best to stop her.
She wouldn't have expected anything else of a Pierce, but when she saw his bat shatter under the bludger's impact, and he took a hit that sent him flying several feet backwards, she started moving in. She spared the Chaser group an occasional glance, just to make sure she didn't miss a goal, but Derry had blood on his face, his bat was in pieces, he looked to be having trouble breathing, and . . . and he was asking for a new bat.
"Med tent, now," she told him, not giving room for any argument. Bruises and dislocated shoulders were one thing. She would have let that go. But open wounds and poor lung functions were something else entirely. She would have made the same judgement for anyone who wasn't her son's brother. She was eighty-percent sure of that. "Pick up a new bat on your way out," she instructed. "But go to the med tent first."
He tried to argue that he was fine, but she wouldn't hear it. "Med tent, now, Derry." She ordered in a tightly controlled voice. "Or I will have you out of the game permanently." He went.
That settled, she made sure Kate and Jade were still on their brooms and that the Chasers hadn't scored yet.
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<font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
Seriously?
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<font color=silver>Coach Amelia Pierce</font>
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5