Written for QLFC Round 4
Team: Wigtown Wanderers
Position: Beater 2
Prompt: Creature POV: Thestral
Additional Prompts: 10. (setting) lake, 11. (dialogue) "Do you really need to do that?"
Words: 1120
"Alright, Eryn?"
She nodded, then turned her back to Hagrid. She always did it when she ate, but so did most Thestrals. They were private creatures, especially the young ones. Eryn grazed at least one mating field away from the herd, often not seeing them for days. Today, she was at the very edge of the lake.
That was where Hagrid left her after giving her the meat. He gave her a pat on the shoulder and whistled as he walked away. Eryn's mind quickly drifted.
She could smell the Giant Squid in the lake and heard Hagrid's songbirds in the forest. They were familiar distractions, and so were the faint Acromantula chirps and student voices. The spiders never left the forest, however, and most of the students couldn't see her.
Eryn ripped off another chunk of flesh. The meat had been a bull at some point, about six years old if her sense of smell wasn't deceiving her. She threw the carcass into the air, caught it in her mouth, threw it back up into a somersault, and caught it again. She laughed. Clamping her jaws down, Eryn dropped the meat and enjoyed what was actually in her mouth.
"Do you really need to do that?"
Eryn stopped. Though she was surprised, she didn't turn around. The speaker was a girl, she could smell, young, about eleven years of age. She wore school robes, a—were those Dirigible Plums?
Eryn turned around, then. She hadn't finished chewing, and though she wasn't proud of the fact, she was a messy eater and had bull blood dripping down her chin onto her neck. The girl—who was about eleven years old, and yes, she was wearing Dirigible Plums in her ears—didn't look surprised. She didn't even look disgusted, even if her question was a bit rude.
So she'd seen death, then. Who had it been, Eryn wondered, how long ago? The girl had no obvious sadness about her, but the clothes! Those had to be a statement of confidence, because no human could possibly want to wear them. Not that Eryn was an expert, and she was fairly young in Thestral terms, but she did have eyes.
The girl still hadn't moved. She looked expectantly at Eryn, her head cocked to the side. It was a Thestral movement, often indicating respect to an elder. Eryn wondered where she had learned it. Since Kettleburn didn't introduce Thestrals to his students and most young ones had no idea they existed.
"I'm sorry I interrupted your meal," the girl said. Her head hadn't moved and her expression hadn't changed, and still stayed the same when she continued talking, "but you're very close to the students."
Eryn gave her a look of surprise. She always picked an isolated grazing spot and had never been interrupted before. But here she was, being talked to by a girl that was several times younger than her. And what was the girl saying? That she was grazing too close to students?
Eryn stomped her right hoof and puffed out her nostrils.
"It's just . . ." the girl pointed to the edge of the castle and Eryn followed with her eyes. "Can they see you? Or do they just see meat disappearing into thin air?"
It was a valid question, one she'd never been asked before, and Eryn threw her head back. A low sound from the back of her throat came out in a loud laugh. Hagrid had asked her that once, too, back when he was young—she'd laughed then, too—and her answer hadn't changed.
Thestrals couldn't speak the way humans could. They communicated instead through wing movements and hoof claps. But the girl wouldn't understand that, maybe not through lack of trying. Instead, Eryn indicated her reply in a simple manner: she turned around to eat the bull.
"Oh," the girl had an airy, high-pitched voice which now dripped with curiosity. "Are too far away, then? You're private, and I wouldn't like my meal interrupted, either, but better with a question than with disgust, right?"
Eryn wanted to note that the girl's reaction to her eating habits hadn't been exactly favorable. But that was a natural human reaction, considering their hygiene and concept of respect for all creatures (other than actual creatures), living or dead. But the carcass was more interesting than the girl. She had stopped talking and was standing several feet away from Eryn. Her head was still tilted, waiting for some sort of response.
Eryn was not cruel. She let the girl stand while she finished her meal. She ate quicker than usual—and she would feel that bone tomorrow, she knew it—and hoped that the girl understood that. If she didn't . . . well, that wasn't Eryn's problem. The girl was there because she wanted to be there, and if she left it would be by her own accord.
But the girl did not leave.
When Eryn faced her again, she showed no response to the blood. That was a good change, since even Hagrid raised an eyebrow at it. Sure, she had the worst eating habits of the entire herd, but they didn't fault her for it! If her own family let her be, why couldn't humans?
Still, the girl wasn't commenting on it and Eryn wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. She would suggest that no one else did, either, because who knew what those horses ate? She sauntered to the water. It was warm despite it being mid-November, so she walked in up to her shoulders.
"Do you like to swim?"
Eryn snorted. The girl knew Thestral etiquette, sure, but she wasn't that good at following it. How could she, though, if one looked at it? Eryn and she spoke different languages (no language at all, in Eryn's case), and words were the only way the girl could express her thoughts.
Eryn expressed her answer with a nod. It was easy for humans to understand, seeming to be a universal gesture.
"So do I," the girl walked closer to the edge of the water, "can I come in?"
Students weren't allowed in the lake, but Eryn wasn't a teacher. She nodded.
The girl was interesting, and the clothes could be forgiven. Besides, she was comfortable with Thestrals and knew their behavior, so Eryn didn't expect any disrespect.
"My name's Luna," the girl said as she entered the water. She had only taken off her robe and shoes.
Eryn brayed back her own name. Names were spoken by Thestrals, if nothing else was, and even if the girl didn't know what she was saying, it was a formal exchange. They now knew each other.