Pretty sure this is the longest chapter to date. I was going to make it about 3,000 words but then decided not too because I'm really not sure as to where I want to take this little situation just yet!
If you have any ideas on what you'd want to see, let me know!
Thank you all so so so much for the reviews and encouragement, I do read through all of them and they all make me smile c:
Enjoy!
Alright, so the warmth thing wasn't an understatement. I kept getting warmer and warmer and warmer, too warm one might say. I think the charm required a bit more work but my hands kept hurting from the last time I'd worked on it.
I'd already gotten scolded by Mr Scamander for forgetting to use his little salve thing and while I was sorely sorry, the blisters still made my hands throb in the cold wind which was distracting...All in all I wasn't having a good time but I was spending most of it chatting with the Niffler inside my jacket.
We hadn't found much yesterday after we'd come out of Scamander's suitcase. Only the creature's tracks and the prints of another more human-like consistency, probably the wizards we'd seen the other day. We'd tracked the Graphorn up to a lake and had to assume this was a watering hole for most of the wildlife around here and that he'd hopefully return. A struggle in my jacket forced my attention to the little guy inside it as he seemed try and find a more comfortable position.
"I told you, you should have stayed in his case." I tsked as I unzipped the coat a little, to bring him out of it. He gave me an annoyed click, seeming to huff at my lecturing. I held back a hiss as he scrambled onto my hand, little pointy feet dug into my wounds but I knew he didn't mean to do it. I hummed to myself and elected to slip him inside my breast pocket, he would be warm but he'd be able to see out of it.
A cold breeze bounced off the water as deer bent down to drink some, quickly skipping away after spotting us near the lake. I guessed a doe, not quite old enough to learn it's surroundings as it'd taken the little thing a second to figure out we'd been there as well.
I believe it was near dusk by the time we got any more movement. I'd laid down in the grass, my head near Mr Scamander's knees as he continued to jot down notes of whatever he fancied. I stood slowly, stretching my way out of the coat to allow it to fall past my shoulders and wondered a tad away from him towards the water behind us.
It was around a second later that I didn't hear the scratching of his quill on parchment and picked my head up from the blue mirror. Across the water stood a Graphorn but this one wasn't like the last male we'd seen. This was new Graphorn which was a little exciting, to know he wasn't the very last one for now.
Slow as could be, he rose to creep closer for a better look. I follow Scamander's lead most of the way, keeping a step or two behind him. As we got closer, my eyes quickly scanned for the differences and picked out smaller horns and a rounder frame leaving me to believe this was a female.
This was honestly quite spectacular to see, a male and a female Graphorn was rare to see in the same place. Their hides, particularly the females, were quite strong in deflecting jinxes, charms, and hexes. It was so spectacular that I'd forgotten entirely about just how warm my torso and legs were to focus on this ethereal being as it simply sipped water. I think it was things like this that made the pains, cold, and poachers tolerable.
The creature picked up on us as we sat down again, Scamander with his sketching didn't appear to have perturbed her. If anything it seemed she was curious, coming closer ever so hesitantly. I couldn't see any scars or scratches to her telling me she probably hadn't ran into the poachers just yet.
We sat there, watching the creature for goodness knows how long before I began to hear...crunching? I peeked down at the Niffler, sitting in my pocket and found he was asleep. Wasn't him. I glanced at Mr Scamander and found he was steadily drawing in his book so it wasn't him. Pursing my lips I focused back on the Graphorn as she gazed down at Scamander's smooth hand movements, she was still as could be.
Where is this coming from?
I went to turn my head and froze, feeling a wand pressed to my back. Instincts? What instincts? I'm both deaf as a doorknob and mentally handicapped. I thought about screaming, whipping around and attacking who ever decided to stick his wand at my back but...I couldn't. I was stuck.
"Up now. Nice and easy." An accented voice hummed into my ear, victorious but tense. Where was he from? He wasn't European.
Thoughts pushed through my head in waves, if I screamed, I'd scare the Graphorn. She could hurt Mr Scamander. If I went to attack my own attacker, I could hurt the Niffler and Mr Scamander. I'm stuck. I'm stuck because I let my guard down. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Ara.
I heard a low growl as a hand wrapped around my newly healed shoulder, squeezing painfully. He was trying to move me but my body seemed frozen still. I was frozen despite the fact that my heart was pounding like thunder through my chest and arms. A strong gust of wind pushed through my hair, forcing little curls to tickle my face and exposed shoulders.
I looked up and watched as the Graphorn seemed to stop in the low light, picking her head up just enough to smell the wind. Immediately, she seemed to pick up on my panic, stomping and paw at the ground furiously. Maybe it wasn't my panic she'd picked up but his scent because she seemed to be huffing heavily, looking defensive. Her head swung back and forth with her eyes darting around. It was entirely possible she'd already had a run in with these poachers in particular but had escaped in the past.
I was yanked up now, he didn't seem to care about alerting anyone or anything in particular anymore. His wand was uncomfortable feeling, pushed harder into my back. I came up to my full height with his force and stood entirely still as I could. I needed a strategy.
"Woah, girl. Woooah there." I heard Mr Scamander's soothing voice as he tried to calm her. He hadn't picked up on our company just yet it seemed. Maybe that was for the best. Maybe not, this man couldn't have come alone. He wouldn't have. Not after the little dueling session we'd had a few days ago. Where were the others?
I wanted to scream out for him to notice I wasn't able to help him, that I was in trouble yet again. Mr Scamander reached slowly towards his case while trying to keep an eye on the Graphorn.
"What's he doing?" A harsh whisper brought me back to the fact that I was in a shit predicament and it wasn't just me. I had an innocent creature literally in my pocket, asleep.
"He's just trying to calm her down." My voice surprised me, it was calm and strong sounding with not a stutter or shake in it. I watched Mr Scamander pause for a second in his reach towards the case, his head tilted in our direction ever so slightly. I silently hoped he could see us but all my hopes were immediately shot down when he simply continued to grab the suitcase and popped it open, casually.
"And that?" Another furious whisper shook me, his breath was oddly wet. Little gross. I didn't answer, choosing to watch as he moved just as slowly as before with the case open in the irate Graphorn's direction.
"Fine then." The man spoke at a normal volume now, before he let out a loud whistle near my ear. It snapped Mr Scamander into action as he swung his case towards the Graphorn. I watched with fascination as the Graphorn was sucked into the case, it was gone within a blink of the eye. I had to assume it was safe because as soon as it'd clicked shut, Mr Scamander spun and began firing spells with little order or reason.
I opened my mouth to tell him to focus on what he was doing, to not just fire at random but the hand squeezing had wrapped itself over my mouth without me noticing. I was being pulled backwards and it was beginning to irritate me. I kind of hate being dragged from place to place when I had no choice in the matter.
"Ara!" His voice reached me maybe a second too late because I'd already gone for my wand, despite the incentive to not do so in my back. I'm pretty sure I felt a flash over my back before I actually felt the slimy grassy bits hit my face. It must have rained sometime today.
"We'll just have to figure out how to grab him before he comes lookin' for her." A deep voice woke me out of a fog. I stretched a hand out of it's cramped position under my back and felt the familiar tingles of Stupefy along with the burning sensation I'd forgotten about for a short time.
"He couldn't find us. Mikey did the invisible charm, right?" Another male voice demanded. I wasn't all that sure if I wanted to move further or attempt to get my bearings together. I felt a bit cold but it wasn't unbearable, I mean if anything I just felt groggy. Kinda Achey. Like I needed a pepper-up potion.
"Y'all know Mikey's charm work ain't all that." The first voice spoke up again, sounding oddly guilty but his voice was guttural sounding. So...what have we gotten ourselves into now, Ara?
"Gee, thanks Terry." A third voice sounded sarcastic. I peeked open an eye and found I was looking at a camp fire of sorts from a metal cage. Lovely. It looked like there was about three of them, all males and maybe in their 30s.
"Well he did it. I'll reinforce it later." The man whose face I could see spoke this time. It seemed obvious to me he was the leader, a spindly looking man with grey streaks to colour the brown of his hair. Despite how short it was cut, some pieces seemed to gather near his eyes, forcing him to constantly blow it out of the way. The other two sat close together, their backs faced me but both men had the same odd shade of a greasy black with a shaggy cut.
"Right right." One of the men whose backs faced me spoke, waving a hand at the others dismissively. I blinked a second time, hoping to clear the fog away from my brain as I watched the group. No such luck of course. I slowly brought one arm to my front, it'd begun to cramp being twisted around my frame like that.
"The buyer wants their skins, you know that. We have a deadline, no other option but to follow it." The leader spoke again, strength echoed in his voice despite the fact that he looked a tad emaciated. My only guess was he'd been the one who got whatever contract they seemed to be working towards completing. I scanned the grounds, or at least the ones I could actually see by the fire's light.
It was chaotic to say the least, but I could pick out two sleeping bags to the left with the stuffing coming out in crazy streams. It was sticking out the most around the head and feet areas. I'd supposed they were either not paid yet or they hadn't spent the cash on new camp supplies. Behind the bed area were boxes, some seemed to be half empty with others still sealed, I had to guess that was the food supply.
I was surprised, these were obviously wizards but they didn't seem all that interested in conserving space. I felt for my wand in my waistband and had it dawn on me that I was cold mainly because I had very little on. A short sleeved shirt and my breeches were torn at the knees but my boots seemed intact for the most part. My wand was gone, as was my coat. My coat...oh my god, the Niffler was in it!
Shite. Shitshitshit.
"So... any idea when the young lady might wake up, Vince?" One of the men whose back was turned drawled, I saw a bit of his head turn to look back at me and snapped my eyes shut immediately.
"Oh, I'm sure she'll get up when she feels like it." He responded knowingly. Did he already know I was up? I didn't remember seeing him spare me a glance. Was it because I moved?
"You hit her pretty good." One of them commented, a lower voice than the other. Possibly Terry from the guttural tone.
"Yeah, good enough to piss off her rat. What kinda lady keeps a rat in her pocket?" His companion asked quickly, it lacked the strength signaling it was the other man whose back faced me. This 'Mikey' with poor charm work had me hanging onto every word. Where was my Niffler?
"They're Brits, Mikey. They're already a weird bunch of good-for-nothins." The leader spoke up in a dark chuckle, pushing a slight button of mine.
I wasn't a brit. I was Irish. We'd been fighting a good long while with little to show for it. Just because I wasn't in the Irish war for independence didn't mean I didn't support it by Merlin, I'd just had enough of the nightmares from the Great War. That was all there was to it.
"I'm not a Brit." I disagreed, startling the group quite a bit. I watched one of the men whose back faced me jump, it gave me a giggle but I didn't show it to these louts.
"Oh? What are ya then, Missy?" The leader drawled with a small grin as he set down whatever they'd been eating next to his foot. It looked a little like stew, murky brown liquid with items bobbing in it. I couldn't tell what exactly from my position.
"I'm bloody Irish." I deadpanned, staring at them with little interest. I was still hoping to see where they'd put the Niffler and where I was. Or if they had Scamander. I had to guess they didn't from their earlier conversation.
"Right, right. Whats your name then, Irish?" He raised a brow, standing from his spot near the fire. I'd appeared captured their leader's interests and I wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing. Perhaps I should have pretended to sleep longer.
"Wouldn't you like to know." I mused, looking away from the leader to adjust my position in my odd little cage to something more comfortable.
"Well then, sassy little thing. I s'ppse I should introduce these fine gentleman first, huh? This is Terry and his brother Mikey." He pointed to the men who'd finally turned around, both had green eyes though Mikey's seemed quite a bit more bright than his brother's. His brother Terry seemed quite tired despite the fact the he didn't appear to be all that old.
"Right." I nodded at them as they seemed to just stare on, Mikey still looked quite surprised which made me assume he'd been the one to jump.
"I'm Vincent. You are?" I looked back at the leader, meeting his dark eyes with as little panic as I could muster up.
"Araminte Maximae." I sighed, I would have stuck my hand out to greet him but the bars were a little too close together for my hand or arm to fit so I just stared. Vincent gave me a slow smile as he nodded at me in some kind of greeting. I could honestly care less who they were, I just wanted three things at the moment. I wanted my wand, the Niffler, and to get the hell out of here before morning.