9) Lost
Selected Listening: In the Cells- James Newton Howard
Anastasia sprinted all the way back to the cave where the briefcase sat in the shadows. She opened it and ran down the stairs.
"Newt! Newt!" She yelled.
He was frozen, hugging his knees to his chest on his favorite sitting log.
"I found a demiguise! I did. I found one!" She yelled excitedly and shook his shoulder. "Why aren't you smiling?"
He gave her a disbelieving glance, and slowly crept out of his shell.
"You ran off, and I thought you had gone missing."
"Oh…I'm sorry, it's just, you hadn't come back yet, and I wanted to go out—"
"You wanted to go out? How nice for you. After I explicitly told you to stay put and not run off. We had an agreement!" He stood up off the log and rounded on her. "This is exactly why didn't want someone like you coming along on this trip."
"Someone like me? And what exactly am I?"
"A bloody Gryffindor! You run off whenever you want, you never think about another's feelings, you never follow directions."
Anastasia frowned and the tops of her ears turned red with fury.
"Really? Because the last two days I thought I was a Slytherin in your book! If you're going to house-type me before I'm even sorted, would you at least be consistent?"
"Fine. Well I've decided. You're a Gryffindor once and for all, just like your grandfather, he never listened to me either…and you know there's no way you could have found a demiguise, because they're only seen in direct moonlight—"
"Okay, so the moon wasn't fully up, but it was twilight…"
"And you were only a five-minute distance from here, and they never would have left their mating ground at this time of year, which is two hours down the hill to the south."
"What? They have legs. They can move. And wasn't it you saying that poachers were around? What if the poachers chased them off? Have you found any demiguises yet where you're looking."
His lip twitched.
"Well…no…but, they wouldn't have even thought to approach someone as threatening as you would be."
"Did you just call me threatening? I'm ten! How in Merlin's name could I be threatening?"
"Well with the way you ran in here just now, I'm surprised you didn't scare them all off."
Anastasia's jaw dropped, and she stared at him in complete disbelief.
"You know what, to hell with that, to hell with you. I don't even need dinner. I'm taking a walk." She said, throwing down her backpack and heading back up the stairs.
"Where do you think you're going!" He shouted. She turned over her shoulder and started with a funny voice.
"Oh, I think I'll hit up the Rainforest Pub. Where do you think I'm going? Maybe I'll find another demiguise and bring it back here for you." She spat the last word and walked out.
Newt didn't say anything but made a nasty face at her, and then went about the evening chores.
Anastasia didn't know where she was going, but she crept through the rainforest, clinging tight to her backpack straps, examining every tree branch for signs of life. Every once in a while, a bird, every other once in a while, a scurry in the bushes.
Eventually she came upon a small basin, a depression where the land dipped into a sort of bowl shape. But the leaves were rustling, as if many things were present at once.
The moon peaked through the trees and shone onto a demiguises's silver back. They were slightly smaller than willow trees and slightly bigger than a shrub. Their hair hung down in thick masses around their faces and hands, although those were bare. Their eyes could hardly be seen in the thick hair dripping down from their foreheads like water.
"Demiguises." She whispered.
The rustling became louder and louder. At first, she thought they spotted her, but then she looked across the way and saw three men emerge from the bushes. They launched nets out of special guns on top of the animals.
"Stop! Stop!" Anastasia screamed, a gut reaction, even though she knew she couldn't do anything.
The man leading the group saw her and pointed at her. She couldn't make out what he said.
But the two other men launched themselves at her. She turned and ran.
Back through the forest she went. She couldn't tell if she was headed back towards camp. She leapt over fallen branches and trampled through leaves, but as the land grew steeper and steeper, her breath became shorter and shorter.
The same dizzy feeling returned that she had felt in the rafters above Minerva's class, stronger than the first time. She reached for another branch higher, but as she did, a hand wrapped around her ankle.
Anastasia gasped for one last breath as the world turned black.