Day II

The next morning Stella woke up to an empty bed. Omer had left early that day to explore the new cavern that Katopodis, their rather timid coworker, had discovered the day prior.

Though they'd both worked at the Marine Creature Sanctuary, Stella and Omer rarely crossed paths at work. She had been assigned a position at the rehabilitation center – assisting with various injured and ill creatures who could not be released to fend for themselves. Meanwhile Omer – who had been working there for quite a while longer than her – mostly worked outdoors, reporting on the state of the creatures at the reserve through observations and collection of specimens.

Despite Omer having the more conventionally exciting job out of the two, Stella still felt satisfied with her lot. She loved the close contact she got with creatures such as old winged horses, chronically depressed sea serpents, griffins with wing deformations, and hippocampi who required special attention.

As the day drew to a close, Stella parted with her coworkers and disapparated back to her home. Nighttime came much earlier than in the summer even here, she reflected as she grabbed the handle of her front door and turned it.

The door was locked.

Omer must still be out, she thought to herself.

It wasn't an unusual occurrence, coming home before Omer did. Afterall, she had set hours at her job, and he had more undefined, open work hours. Still, she thought he would be back by now… How big was that cave?

Stella tapped the lock with her wand and walked inside. Darkness greeted her. She flicked her wand again and the lamps in the broad living room switched on.

"I guess I'll start making dinner…" she mumbled to the empty house.

Stella walked to her cozy kitchen and, with another flick of her wand, made vegetables sort, wash, and line themselves for a series of knives. She was feeling more like a salad this evening rather than a hearty meal. No doubt Omer would add some meat to it when he gets here, she thought smiling to herself. She was looking forward to hearing from him all about the mysterious cave. It must be quite amazing if it's taking him so long to –

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

Stella turned around immediately. Something that knocked on the living room window made her jump. She tried looking through it, squinting her eyes at the darkness beyond the glass.

Nothing.

Must be the wind, she thought to herself, as she turned back to her assembly of vegetables. One by one and thinly sliced, just the way Omer liked it. Some tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and –

*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*

Stella turned around a second time.

Nothing again.

Was it a rogue branch? Some animal? Stella approached the window a little this time. Something really odd was happening. She knew it was probably nothing, but she couldn't help but feel a little unnerved.

After staring at the darkness through the window for a minute or so Stella convinced herself again it was only the window clicking due to wind or the house adjusting. She flicked her wand at the – now fully cut – veggies and summoned a bowl and some vinegar. As the bottle of vinegar poured itself onto the veggies – which were now mixing themselves, composed by her wand – it occurred to Stella that she ought to add some feta to the mix. She flicked her wand in the direction of her cheese cab–

* TAP* * TAP* * TAP*

Stella turned around swiftly with her wand held in the direction of the dark window as feta cheese flew across the kitchen behind her.

Nothing once more.

She was getting anxious now. That last knock did not sound like the wind. It sounded very much intentional. The kind a pair of human knuckles would produce on glass.

"Omer?" She called, trying not to sound as nervous as she was. "Omer, if that's you trying to scare me just know that this isn't funny."

Stella paced forward carefully with her wand steadily in front of her. She was, after-all, a very decent dueler. She even joined a club at Ilvermorny –

"BAH!"

Stella jumped as something peered suddenly from the bottom of her window. Or rather someone. It wasn't Omer. It wasn't in fact anybody she recognized.

A small, scrawny, pale, dark-haired boy – maybe 5 or 6 years old – was smiling at her from beyond the glass. He had pale blue eyes and a big smile on his face. The sort of devilish grin children often have after pranking someone.

Stella sighed in relief and tucked her wand hurriedly in her back pocket.

The kid was giggling at her now.

Stella quickly paced to the backdoor of the house leading onto the garden in which the child had been hiding.

"Hey there sweetie what are you doing here at this hour?" She asked the little boy. "Where are your parents at?"

The boy smiled at her and answered: "Ti káneis me aftó to ravdí?"

Stella, kicking herself mentally for neglecting her Turkish lessons, struggled to remember what little of Omer's language she picked up. Of course, this kid didn't speak English, what the hell was she thinking?

"Er – nasil – er – um… anne ve baba? Er - senin? Senin anne?" She asked, hoping for Merlin's sake that she remembered the words for mother and father correctly.

The boy giggled again. "Eísai asteíos!"

Omer would do a better job at this once he comes back, she thought to herself. She tried motioning to the boy to come inside, but he just kept standing there, smiling at her.

"Come," she said a little too loudly. "Come inside, it's cold out. Er – soğuk? Cold? Understand?"

The boy's smile widened. He shook his head suddenly and motion her as if he was trying to get her to come with him.

"Óchi, óchi, éla mazí mou!" He called.

Stella was beginning to feel a little panicky at this point. How did he even get here? The nearest town was quite a long distance away… Too long for a child to walk on their own, especially at this hour –

"Hey!" She called after the boy as he began running towards the cliff at the end of her garden.

She chased him all the way to the edge. The boy then stopped and looked down into the cold, watery abyss beyond.

"Wha – what – what do you think you're doing?" She called, catching her breath. "Step away from the edge it's dangerous!"

The boy didn't budge.

Stella grabbed his arm and –

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He screeched in retaliation.

It was supernaturally high pitched and horrible. Almost like a Mandrake. The boy was so loud, that Stella thought her eardrums might burst. She let go of the boy and grabbed her ears in pain.

"Stella?" Omer's voice came from above her. He sounded worried. "Stella what happened? Why are you out on the ground like this?"

Now suddenly realizing she had been crouching on the muddy soil of the garden, Stella looked up at her husband's alarmed face, then around her frantically.

"What? Where'd he go?"

"Where'd who go?" Asked her bewildered husband.

"The boy," she replied.

"What boy?"

"The boy, the one that was here all alone trying to scare me by knocking on the window!"

"What are you talking about Stella? There is no 'boy' here…"

"I saw a little boy tapping on our window and running toward the cliff…"

"All I saw was you running and standing on the edge of this cliff alone and dropping down on the ground screaming…"

Stella was thoroughly confused now. She was certain the boy spoke to her, tapped her window, she even touched him…

"Did you get poisoned at work today? Accidentally cut yourself and let some sea serpent venom to get in?"

"Maybe…"

That was the only logical way of explaining it. She figured – though she didn't remember for sure – she'd scraped herself on her arm or hand without noticing whilst playing with the sea serpents in their tank. Their venom was known to cause hallucinations.

"Yeah… yeah, that must be it," she concluded.

"Come," said Omer as helped her up, "you need to lay down. And maybe have something sweet."

He led her back into the living room. Only now, as Omer hugged her and helped her walk through the garden, did Stella realize how cold and windy it was outside.

Omer ushered her onto the couch and proceeded to summon a small jam tart with his wand. He handed it to her, and she took a big bite out of it. The pastry was warm and buttery, just what she needed to regain her strength.

"How – er – how was the cave today?" She inquired.

For the first time since he arrived, Omer smiled at Stella.

"Amazing," he answered. "Better than anything we could have imagined!"

"What do you mean?"

"It is teeming with life! Species of fish and crustaceans pale like – er – snow! Algae too."

"That's amazing! They must have developed their own ecosystem after being sealed in the cave for thousands of years…"

"Yes, and the cave is big, really big, huge in fact. We didn't even manage to get halfway deep today – we did stop a lot to examine the creatures though."

"So, you think you'll be going back in there tomorrow?"

"Already got the approval from Mr. Weasley."

"I wish I could come with you… I wanna see those animals firsthand…"

"Don't worry, we plan on bringing some with us to the center. You know, to examine properly. You'll get to see them then."

Stella hesitated for a second. "What about the thing that's making the hippocampi sick? Did you find anything?"

"Nothing we could say for sure… Maybe it's some of the algae. We'll have to test them too. But like I said, we haven't really seen half of it so who knows."