Luna had travelled across the world to India in search of the famous phoenix, her adventures in Egypt and China had proven to be a waste of time for she had not caught even the slightest glimpse of the magical bird. She had trekked through forest and desert in search of the mysterious bird and had returned back into urban areas unsuccessful and with less money than she had started with. This was her last hope.
She had packed her bags and travelled to India, dragging a rather unwilling Rolf Scamander along with her. She had dumped her things in a hotel room and packed only what she thought would be essential on her journey in a smaller bag, and after asking locals about anything strange that they may have witnessed, she set off.
The rickshaw could only take her so far before the ground became too unsteady and rocky for it to be a considered a safe option. She had happily parked it in a clearing that she was sure she would remember, tossed Rolf his things and slid her own rucksack over her shoulder.
"Come on Ralph, let's go find us a phoenix!" she said with a grin, and led the way despite the fact that she really had no idea where she was going.
"It's -it's Rolf actually-"
"Keep up Ralph!"
Her hair stood out like a shining light amid all of the green trees and the large green leaves that blocked their path and littered the forest floor. Her ponytail swung from side to side as she hurried over fallen branches and soft moss, her hiking boots making no noise. For someone quite small and skinny, Luna had an amazing amount of strength storied in those pale white arms that stood out against her green tank top, and those long legs that stretched out from her beige shorts.
His own dark hair was wet with sweat, with his light-coloured shirt and pants sticking to his dark skin in an uncomfortable manner.
They went on and on, deeper into the forest where there were bigger leaves and it became increasingly hard to follow Luna because she was moving so quickly. He only had the sounds of her laughter and awe that came from her as she found new things.
They eventually stopped for lunch in an area surrounded by tall trees, Luna picked out the softest spot on the floor that she could find before dumping her rucksack and its contents on the ground. Rolf took a seat next to her and took the food that she handed him with a grateful smile.
The two dug into their food in silence. Luna had wrapped her hair up and then stuck her wand through it to keep it in place; even the ponytail was providing too much heat. She had zoned out and began to stare ahead of her with a glazed look on her face. She imagined what it would be like when she finally found a phoenix, she would sigh and hold out her arm, the bird would immediately fly down to rest on it and sing for her.
Rolf on the other hand looked quite uncomfortable sitting out in the open like he and Luna were. He had heard tales of tigers hunting in the woods and while he was best friends with Luna, he wouldn't risk getting mauled to death by a tiger just so she could see a phoenix.
"What's making you so antsy?" Luna asked Rolf with a smile as she began to pack water bottles and food containers back into her pack.
"Nothing," Rolf replied and shot her a confident smile.
"If you're sure, come on then, we're almost there, I can feel it," Luna said and set off without waiting for a response.
Rolf didn't know what Luna was feeling, perhaps some food had gone bad, but he wasn't feeling whatever she was. The entire thing felt quite pointless to him but he didn't want to be the one to rain on her parade.
The forest was slowly becoming darker and darker as Rolf and Luna kept hiking and the sun went down. Luna had begun whistling to pass the time, while she was having the time of her life leading the way; Rolf was becoming increasingly anxious in the disappearing light.
What if they ran into wild animals? What if they fell down a deep, dark hole and couldn't get themselves out? What if it started pouring and they had nowhere to go?
Luna was determined however, she was going to see a phoenix if it was the last thing that she did and no tigers or any farmers living in the woods would stop her.
And so onwards they trudged.
Rolf wasn't good at telling time without a watch but if he had to guess then he and Luna were nearing on at eleven o'clock at night. It was dark, their sense of sight was becoming limited and Luna couldn't deny it. She was tripping over rocks and branches and large tree trunks every few minutes. She wouldn't be able to keep going much longer.
Rolf decided he would wait until she was the one who decided to turn back, if he were to suggest that they give up it would only make her more determined and she'd find excuses to stay. The flowers let off an intoxicating smell, or there were so many species of birds that she'd never seen before and sounds she'd never heard and wanted to cherish.
And although all of that was beautiful and the air around them buzzed with life, to Rolf it wasn't worth it.
They stopped to rest against a tree one last time.
"We'll go for five more minutes and then we can apparate back to the hotel," Luna said, as she tried to catch her breath. She would come back tomorrow and the day after and so on until she got what she wanted.
"Come o-ARGH!" Luna's sentence turned in a scream as her foot didn't meet the ground that was supposed to have been there. Luna rolled down the unexpected hill, head over head and feet over feet, branches and insects getting caught on her clothes and her wild free hair. She banged against a tree and cut herself on a rock and still she kept going.
She at last came to a stop with a groan. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and waited for the loud disturbance that Rolf was making to stop. She was going to tell him to quit making such a racket because she was fine when she noticed the deep cut going from the top of her knee, around to the back of her calf and stopping just above her Achilles heel. It burned quite a bit and she was afraid of touching it for fear of how much more pain it would cause her.
She searched around for her wand so she could make an attempt to patch herself up well enough to get out of the mess when a beautiful song penetrated the air. It was mournful and sweet and it calmed her down. It made her want to lie down and go to sleep. It filled her up with so much happiness despite its tune and Luna let out a sigh of contentment. She had stopped looking for her wand without even noticing it.
A flash of orange, yellow, and red caught her eye and she looked down at her bleeding leg. There was a light pressure on it and Luna's eyes widened when she realized what the bird was. The phoenix looked up at her with big sad eyes, it blinked, once, twice and then bent its head towards her bloodied leg. Tear after tear dropped from the eye of the phoenix and onto her leg, the skin sizzling as it sewed itself back together little by little.
Luna looked up in amazement to see if Rolf had captured everything that was happening on camera and grinned when she saw that he was snapping away dozens of pictures per second. The clicking and the occasional flash from the camera didn't startle the magical bird; it just kept on doing its task.
Once it was satisfied that Luna had been healed, it looked her in the eye and hopped closer to her. Luna held out her hand tentatively. The phoenix stared at it for a moment and the rubbed the top of its head against her palm with closed eyes. It opened its mouth and the same tune sad tune came out of it. If Luna had to guess at the age, she would say the phoenix was quite young; it seemed to only know how to sing one tune.
Once the bird was satisfied with its petting, it hopped back towards Luna's ankle and without a second glance, flew off into the night and disappeared from sight.
A/N: Hello, so I'm here again with another one-shot because that's all I seem to have time for these days (although I am working on the other stories). Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope anyone that reads this enjoys it just as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Reviews are always lovely!