A Tale of Wings
Why in God's name would they put all the shops for school supplies down one street?! The girl's small form was slammed into the wall of the building she had just exited. Flourish and Blotts, it was called. A book store. Lovely, crowded place.
Her train of thought rolled off the tracks and crashed as her arm was nearly wrenched from it's socket. Her step-father grinned sadistically as a gasp of pain was elicited from her lips. Ruddy bastard... That's what I get for getting tossed into a wall and slowing him down... She glared, golden eyes and moodstones flashing through the matted tangles of almost-black hair. He had refused to take her to get her school supplies unless it had been dyed. Luckily, it wasn't permanent.
She begrudgingly followed behind her step-father. Dark thoughts of anger towards him chashing each other around her skull.
They were in Diagon Ally. Wait... Make that everyone was in Diagon Ally. With just two weeks left till September 1st and the beginning of the school year, parents and students gathered here to buy everything their child needed for the next year at Hogwarts.
Scaryna Taleshade was just one of the many first years this coming semester, and she was observing every student she could, especially the ones that seemed around her age. She got ample time to do so every time her step-father decided that he should not be spending so many galleons on her and argued it up with a sales clerk.
When he had started it up with the clerk in the pet store, Scaryna chose not to just sit there and listen.
I want something different... Owls are sure to be just so... so... common! She thought this as she explored further back into the shop. A snake's hissing voice filled her ears with complaints before she promptly told him off. Being able to talk to snakes was a very rare thing, indeed, and she didn't need the green python unnerving her all through the store. It was good that he was a polite green python, and knew when to shut his trap. He wasn't that expensive, and she could easily buy him just to flay him.
As she peeped into the darker areas of the store, a man's talking peaked her curiousity. She spied between two glass tanks with lizard-ish creatures in them. One looked like an iguana, while the other... It doesn't look like it's got a head at all! Ewww.Scaryna pulled a face at the creature before turning back to her peep-hole. The man, now shown to be tall with long-ish blond hair and the sternest expression of cold-hearted anger Ryna had ever seen, was arguing with another clerk over the price of a black owl. The two progeny beside him could only be described as mini-whoever-he-wasses. Except the girl, who was younger, around Scaryna's age, had cool green eyes instead of blue.
Scaryna shrugged to herself and went off to explore a bit more. The snake had started his complaining again. This time it was something about another creature giving him a funny look
"Hhhlep! 'Sssisssss bird isss going to eat messs! Look... It'ssss not my fault he doesssn't feed you good mousssesss. Pleassse, don't eat me!" The snake hissed.
Scaryna, rolling her amber orbs, decided that, while she did want a bird, a snake was better than nothing. When she reached the snakes' cage, she was confronted by a very large, angry, hungry bird of prey.
At over three feet tall, with black feathers in a band around its neck and chest and down its back, and also having the feathers along the back of its head standing out... well, it looked awfully menacing. It was hissing angrily at the snake and standing awkwardly on a display near his tank.
Noticing an ineffective tether tied around the birds ankle, Scaryna's eyes quickly trailed along the rope to a perch with a sign affixed to it with the words "HARPY EAGLE - warning, this bird is very violent, stay back" spralled across it in black ink. Her eyes, travelling back to the snake and the bird, caught the eagle about to rip into the meshing on top of the tank with its' long, black beak.
A sharp command, issued in Scaryna's native tongue, stopped the bird in it's tracks. It stared at her, curiously, before lifting itself up and, with only two stroke with it's massive wings, traveled to it's perch and settled itself.
After a long daunting conversation - speaking in parseltongue and bird-speech (also called Ryphon speech) seperately is tasking enough, but back and forth? - Scaryna and the two creatures came to an agreement. She would buy them both, name them their already selected names of Cravyn and Dart, and take them home.
And my step-father can't say anything about it at all. They both cost less than a regular owl, even together. Scaryna snickered to herself, then led the way to the counter.
Dart, only being a little over 2 feet long, had wrapped himself around Scaryna's arm for the trip, and Cravyn was hop-walking behind them. Only being a foot and a half shorter than Scaryna herself, the bird didn't think the girl could handle her weight, even on a well balanced place like her shoulder.
At the counter, Scaryna's step-father was still arguing over the price of the owl, like Scaryna knew he would be. At her interception, the clerk looked relieved, but her step-father looked livid. That was, he did... Until she mentioned the better price of the harpy and the snake. She also told him that the bird and the snake needed to be bought together because they had developed an affinity for each other after being thoroughly introduced. The clerk just looked at her like she was insane, but didn't comment. He had already wasted a half-hour arguing with the guy, if he didn't get at least one sale out of it, he'd probably get fired.
At her insistance, Scaryna's step-father finally agreed and purchased both creatures and a travel set for both animals. They then left the store.
After setting the bird to "Go find some real food. And no one else's pet either." Scaryna decided that her day hadn't been all that bad. In spite of the crowds, the noise, my step-father, here she sneered at his back, and my horrible forced appearance, maybe life in the wizarding world isn't so bad. At least when I get to Hogwarts, I'll have two friends already.