This was longer than expected but I had a point in mind that I wanted to stop at and I finally found it.
DragonDancer: I'm glad the confusion cleared up! Hope you enjoy this one as much
Inperfection: Niffler might develop a slight attitude but I have a feeling he'll be around quite a bit. I love playing with his reactions and all!
Love,Fiction,2016: I'm happy you're liking this x)
"Right. Of course." He let out an odd giggle, looking away from my face again towards the ground. I followed his gaze to the floor and tried to remember not to be so teasing with him, he seemed to be a tad awkward when it came to humans and our little ticks. A ding sounded off the wall behind him, drawing both of our attentions.
"Feeding time." He called out rather loudly, moving towards the cupboards I'd just now noticed lied under his crowded desk.
I looked back toward the chart that the sound seemed to have come from and realised it was a timed chart for all the creatures he kept here. I moved towards it slowly, taking in all the little names and spotted Unicorn, Yeti, werewolf among the name slips of paper he'd stuck to the board. A wheel in the center was stuck on Mooncalf and Thunderbird? He has a thunderbird?
"You have a thunderbird?" I raised a brow, looking back at him with a touch of amazement. It was a rarity to say the least. I heard a humph from my shoulder and craned my neck slightly to see the Niffler looking highly unimpressed with my awe.
"Oh don't worry. I'm sure he won't let me near it after I pulled my wand on him." I smiled softly in a bit of bitterness at the creature. He shrugged but had at least uncrossed his little arms. Possibly a good sign.
"Most definitely not. But, I do need you to feed the Mooncalves." I looked back as a bag was dropped into my hands, it seemed to be their pellets.
"Shall I just point myself in that direction then?" I nodded at him as he turned away from me to continue to prepare a hunk of meat...on the place I'd just been laying. Unsanitary but okay. We're not holding that against him, are we now, Ara?
"They like the dark so-" He started as I pushed my way into his sentence with some speed.
"-So just look for the biome thats full of grass and a full moon." I finished feeling a touch proud as I watched him give the smallest of smiles at the meat. I'll probably never grow out of the need to display my knowledge, honestly.
"Indeed, Miss Maximae." He nodded to my statement. I shifted the pellets in my arms to sit closer to my hip as I started towards what I assumed to be the exit of his little shed. I took notice of the tropical gear and collection jars stacked up in a corner as I left. He'd been to other places as well then, warmer places. That might be nice at some point.
It actually took me a bit to find their home, soft moonlight and grassy hills blended in with the darker worlds he'd created down here. I think I'd wandered into an aquatic one at first, until the Niffler pointed me towards the Mooncalves. At first the little beasts were hesitant of me, a strange new comer in their home was something many of them seemed to be leery of.
It was really only until I pulled over the canvas sack and unbuttoned it's lid to reveal little pellets, that they began to come closer to me. I took out a handful and began spreading in crescent shapes around me. It seemed the elders of the group came forewards first, particularly skittish females scooped up a bit in their mouths before scuttling back towards their young and dumping it out for them.
I sat down to their level slowly but surely, trying to not jostle any of my freshly healed wounds as I did so. The sack was right next to me as I continued to dump out little handfuls of their pellets into the little I'd created at the bottom of my shirt.
The pasture was peaceful and serene for me to relax a little in. The tall grass had been pushed over and made soft feeling with the numerous Mooncalves running over it constantly, it tickled my skin pleasantly. The sound of the creatures happily munching away, the young chatting up their elders in a language that was unique to them.
"You alright?" Mr Scamander's voice disturbed the serenity of the moon and grass but left me with a soft and innocent question to answer. I shrugged at first.
I looked to my left, past the Niffler that sat on my shoulder to make eye contact with the man. "I'd say so." Looking back towards the soft furred creatures, huddled together, I let a smile crop up. "Haven't set it on fire just yet." I let out a little giggle at that.
A wheezing laugh sounded softly from my left, leading me to notice the Niffler who seemed to actually be laughing at my joke. I smiled at him softly while he eventually calmed himself back down and settled. Scamander seemed to have found it funny as well, giving the ground a small smile when I looked back at him.
"Off we pop then." Mr Scamander declared after a second of silence, moving to take the pellets as I stood shakily. I followed him back out of the dark enclosure towards his shed, it wasn't that large, one story for his workspace and the second seemed to be his entrance into this little world of his. I watched him sit the bag onto the floor as I stood in the doorway. Movement on my shoulder signaled the Niffler was possibly getting more comfortable on me.
I waited patiently and quietly, trying to not set off any sort of bells in his mind more so than I had already. He seemed quite happy with it, nodding to himself after tying the bag shut and standing to his full height again. My eyes strayed for a second, back to where I'd woken up and saw the pile of clothes that I'd been wearing at one point. Shirt, pants, jacket...purse? Where is my purse?
"Where did my purse go, Mr Scamander?" My voiced picked up a tad from the slight panic. I was trying to not jostle the creature on my shoulder in my panic like I'd already done.
"Hm?" He looked back at me, looking confused as to why I'd be asking him. I had a lot of things in that purse that meant a lot to me, sentimental things. This was not a comforting response.
"T-the little bag I took this morning or whenever we left the room, I don't recall when. I mean I can't really tell time here and my watch was in the bag so, you kno-" I rambled
"Oh! I almost forgot, here you are." He watched me in a panicked rumble and jumble and cut me off before I got too bad to take the little thing out of his pants pocket. His hand was extended softly towards me, the bag outstretched in his fingers.
"Thank you." I quietly reached forwards and grabbed it, our fingers just barely touched as I did so. It sent a string of electric magic up my arm. "I didn't mean to be so...harsh about it. It just holds pretty much all of my happy memories." I apologized softly, looking down at the little purple fabric in my hands.
"It's understandable." He shrugged, turning back towards the bag he'd been attempting to tie off. I guessed this was his response to awkwardly emotional moments with girls who just tried to hex him into oblivion. It was fair? Right? Right. So why I did I feel alienated?
"What are these for?" I sparked conversation, motioning to the tropical gear I already had an inkling about. It grabbed his attention nonetheless, making him turn back around to glance at what I was pointing at.
"Possibly our next trip. After we get the Graphorn to safety of course, I plan on researching occamies." He responded, coming closer to me and the bags and hats. "They're quite fascinating creatures that anyone knows barely anything about." He continued, seemingly inspired by his search to learn more about the creature.
"Outside of their eggs being made of pure silver?" I raised a brow, watching his expression morph.
"Right, yes. Outside of that." Mr Scamander nodded resolutely. I nodded in response, going quiet. The silence reigned on for a good few minutes before he began to pick invisible specks of dust or hair off of his vest and pants. I glanced at him maybe every few seconds, scanning the room in between.
"Well then, I uh...I should be up for only a little while more but you...you should probably get some rest." Mr Scamander declared, forcing me to look back at him with his hands stuff into his pockets.
Before I could respond I felt a slight tug on my ear and turned to find the Niffler motioning towards the ground. I nodded at him and scooped my hands together near him for a little help to get him on the ground safely. He seemed to enjoy it, giving my thumb a quick squeeze before he jumped and scuttled off towards the desk.
I walked towards the little ladder leading to the upstairs and assumedly the room we'd rented for a little while. I was past Mr Scamander when he put a hand softly around my elbow, effectively stopping me.
"I suppose I should explain. We're currently still on the mountain, hopefully anyways and with you injuries I was thinking you and I would sleep here for the night, Miss Maximae." He spoke with some urgency in his eyes, making me wonder just how awful I'd been hit for him to be worried about a little walk.
"Uhm. Okay." I responded awkwardly, nodding again to his explanation. He seemed satisfied with it because he immediately let go of my arm and waved some dusty blankets over to the floor, they folded themselves neatly into a sleeping bag of sorts.
I took two steps forwards and found myself at the foot of it, not entirely sure if I should just sleep in these clothes or look for more comfortable ones. Or if I even wanted to find more comfortable ones...these reminded me of my days in the Trench, dirty black and brown blankets filled with bedbugs.
"Where are you sleeping then?" I looked up from the blankets as I felt him shimmy past me, trying to not touch me but still having to. There was little space in his shack, so a little rubbing of the elbows was going to happen whether we liked it or not.
"Possibly on my desk or on the table." He replied chalantly as he stopped in the doorway, looking around for something I'm sure.
"Why not just sleep on the floor with me? Theres more than enough space and...you've put raw meat up there. Not exactly hygienic." I commented warily, feeling my lip curl up from disgust at the thought.
"Well. Uh." His head spun back rather quickly, as though my comment had taken him aback. "I suppose that would be fine." He cleared his throat, looking forwards again.
"Have a pleasant night." His voice was almost robotic sounding as he walked off quickly in a random direction. I found myself disturbingly upset by him walking off but pushed it away, ignoring it and set about finding something to change into.
I looked to my right and found the Niffler looking back at me, like he was simply waiting for me to finally lay down so he could too. "Was that odd to you?" I asked him, not entirely sure as to what I expected as an answer. He shrugged at me, making some deeper noises that I could only interpret as 'don't take it personally, hes just being himself'.
"Fair enough." I replied, digging through my bag again. I wasn't sure if I was having a genuine conversation with him or if I'd just felt like that to make myself feel better and he was just being a Niffler.
I had finally changed and went to lay down when I'd found that the Niffler had apparently found himself a comfortable spot near the pillow I'd grabbed out of my bag. I deadpanned with a wave of my fingers for him to move, he seemed to have gotten the memo and grumpily shuffled over so I could lay down. I think I might actually miss the rickety beds from the boarding house.