It would have been so much easier if she could cast a shield charm or something, but that was presently out of the question. The creation of the dust constructs was maintained magic, and she couldn't cast anything else until she cancelled the spell or they were all destroyed. As they were doing a pretty good job of distracting the dragon, Heri was hoping to snatch the golden egg up while the dragon wasn't looking.
That plan looked iffy at best when the dragon took out two more doppelgängers with a blast of fire and a swipe of her claws.
The two remainders quickly decided that a new plan was in order when the dragon spotted Heri before she could take cover once more. One caught her up in a fireman hold and made a break for it as the other jumped between them and the dragon, sacrificing itself to the flames.
"Alright, Plan A and B were a bust," Heri breathed, crouching near the trees again. "Time for Plan C."
Heri stuck her wand through the base of her topknot and reached for a pouch she had attached to the right side of her belt. She pulled out the Horntail simulacrum that she had gotten from Bagman. She then shifted her hold on the animated figurine and reached back in the bag for the other thing she needed.
When Heri's hand latched on to what she was looking for, she gave a pleased sound and pulled that out as well. It was Ignis, the dragon statuette that Hagrid had given her for her twelfth birthday. It had gone through the trials of Heri's experimentations as most of her belongings had, and was now capable of flight on top of being fully articulated in the same manner as Iolanthe. It was not autonomous like Iolanthe, but it was easily directed.
Heri cancelled the spell for the dust doppelgängers. She tossed the two figurines on the ground before turning her wand on them in turn with Engorgement Charms. Ignis was made the size of a horse and the Horntail figurine grew to the size of an Asiatic elephant.
"Dirigo!" she cast upon the simulacrum, binding it to function under her control.
The elephantine dragon figure stood at attention, awaiting instruction, the golden medallion declaring Heri as the fourth champion to face her dragon still dangling at its neck.
Heri climbed onto the back of Ignis and settled herself into the groove of its spine that was meant for its wings. Ignis came to life (figuratively) when Heri pressed her hand against a sigil at the base of its skull with precise intent. She gripped it there firmly, securing her hold. It cantered in place much like a jittery horse and tossed its head.
"Irritate her into leaving her nest," Heri told the miniature Horntail.
The simulacrum did as it was told, emerging out from where they had been hidden with a roar of unmistakable challenge, startling both the crowd and the mother dragon. Heri and Ignis soon followed, but shot up into the sky instead of attacking directly; it wouldn't do to drive the Horntail into a complete frenzy.
One thing Heri had learned during her research was that dragons were extremely territorial. In the wild, this wasn't so much of a problem, but reserve-bred dragons started attacking each other as soon as they were hatched. Such fights were vicious, responsible for the majority of injuries that dragon-tamers suffered. It should go without saying that as soon as the Horntail saw the enlarged figurine and heard its challenge, she wanted nothing more than to rip it apart.
Heri and Ignis were saved from the aggression by flying out of range. They circled overhead like a bird of prey, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
The simulacrum (Heri absent-mindedly named it Ptolemy) made a nuisance of itself by diving and darting in and just out of striking distance. The Horntail's head followed it around, her neck stretching and slithering like a serpent. Unfortunately, she didn't to want to take off, putting more importance on her eggs than her need to eliminate competition. Though she writhed and twisted, furling and unfurling her wings and keeping those fearsome yellow eyes on her target, she was too wary to move away from her eggs.
Heri chose then to bodyslam the back of the Horntail's head, making the creature jerk in surprise and diverting a blast of fire that narrowly missed Ptolemy. The Horntail roared in outrage and whipped her tail up, but Heri and Ignis were already swerving away, looping around to back-up the simulacrum.
"Go for the eggs!" she called to Ptolemy, rushing at the Horntail's face with a spell aimed at her eyes.
The Horntail had to jerk her head out of the way of Heri's spell, but she didn't miss Ptolemy swooping too close for comfort near her clutch. Snarling, she nailed Ptolemy in the chest with her claws, causing the simulacrum to go weaving backwards like a drunken housefly.
It appeared that such an attack toward her eggs was the last straw for the Horntail. At lasts, she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, and launched herself at her smaller counterpart.
"Díkaios avástachti píesi!" Heri cried, swinging her wand forward as if it was a sword.
The Horntail actually jerked a bit as Heri's spell came to bear. It was a spell one of the older witch-turned-dryads had taught her, called the Burden of Atlas. It was a combination of increased air pressure and gravity that made the area surrounding the target bear down, pressing them into the ground with the weight that was just a step away from crushing them into a paste. It wasn't anywhere near strong enough to push a magically resistant creature like the dragon into the ground and leave her unable to move like it would with any other sort of creature, but it did slow her down a great deal.
Taking advantage of the situation, another spell fell from Heri's lips, her wand pointed in the direction of the eggs.
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