Alrighty then! Not dead, I promise. But I am so incredibly and utterly late, aren't I? Sorry guys! I got some lovely messages about my health/mortality and I promise, I am all good. Just home for the summer and also just got my new and improved laptop two days ago. (Mine died, and took the last copy of this chapter with it.)
Person: I'm addressing your comment first because-well. I want too? I dunno. Anyways, the whole..."I noticed that you portrayed Newt as pretty boney..." Trust me, I know he's not actually boney. The boniness that Ara mentions in chapter 14? That hard thing she feels when she's pressed up against the tree and Newt? Just to quote myself, "He was quite boney. Goodness." Yeah...that 'hip bone' she rubs against was Newt feeling um. Frisky, shall we say? I was worried, writing that bit, that it might be a little too inconspicuous. I did try to harp on him being incredibly fit after, but ah whale.
Guest 4: Oh man. I am so sorry about missing your birthday. I hope you had a good one though! Also, for Universal Studios, I love the Mummy ride. Seriously. I will ride that thing at least 6 or 7 times when we go there. Something about an old fashioned roller-coaster and the silly effects makes me so excited. Also, I'm not sure, but I think the new ride they're putting in might have something to do with Fantastic Beasts? I remember reading about it at some point, but who knows!
As for Leta and Theseus, I won't be breaking them up. Probably...sorry! :D Newt and Ara will remain strong, regardless!
Now then, onto the whole capturing scenes, ironically, I've had that part written up for literally months. But, I forgot about the Nundu lion thingy. I'll have to edit the whole thing anyways since this was mainly just to get them started on actually getting out of the Goldsteins' apartment.
For the interrogation/death chair, Ara won't be spared. But! She will be captured in a far more exciting and thrilling way. She'll also be just as conniving, stubborn, and annoying as she was the last time she held against her will. (I had a lot of fun with her sass.)
Pickett, or better known as the leaf-stick-thingy, isn't that important to her as he is for Newt. I was also considering her not even being at the table for that discussion. Maybe she gets hit on at the bar instead? I've no idea just yet!
GreyMoonHuntress: I know! I know. Super rude of Kowalski, isn't it? I had to look up literally "old-fashioned ways to talk about sex" to get that barrel description too. But then, I thought about it and I was like "hey, this guy has a serious fever and is kinda losing his mind, right? Isn't he also like a gruff ol' army guy? Why wouldn't he get that graphic?"
Abi-chan fiction fan, Sunflowette, bored411, Guest, LoveFiction2019: Thank you guys for the encouragement! I hope you like this one just as much as last chapter. Sorry it's taken me ages! It doesn't have a cute scene in it though, mainly just filler to get us all set up for Ara running into Credence and then we get to the interrogation...BUMBUMBUMMMM.
Fun fact! My mum calls this whole thing, "Fantastic Things and Where They Be"...Not 100% inaccurate either if I do say so myself.
Off we go!
I'd done a pretty good job so far, ignoring Jacob's muttering. A fantastic job, one might say, especially considering the bloke had a serious habit of just continuously mumbling to himself. Why wouldn't I have ignored the lunatic? Well, for one, he'd pointed us in the direction of a particularly aggressive female Erumpent.
Cassie, I'd named her that-after the Cassiopeia constellation, of course. How could I not name her after a Queen so bloody arrogant and vain that she elected to sacrifice her own daughter for her child's beauty? The bloody animal was far better at trying to trample me when I came close to Newt than she was at actually attracting the male Erumpent we'd found with her.
Okay-that might be a little vain of me. I wasn't trying to say that I was more beautiful than her-though I wouldn't disagree. I just meant she was too bloody ignorant for her own good sometimes.
It was her innocent arrogance, from her pure gigantic stature, that had me waiting by what used to be the entrance to the Central Park Zoo. I had to be ready to catch her-just in case she came at us in a dead run. I was simply quicker with my wand than Newt was, so I supposed I might've felt a bit responsible for deterring any rampaging Erumpents.
"Uh...what's that?" My ears picked up on the sound of Jacob's confusion and twisted my head 'round to peer at him. He seemed to have a habit of attracting magical creatures in the most unceremonious manner.
"Now, there's absolutely nothing for you to worry about," Newt nodded, hoisting a brown breast plate towards the wary Muggle.
"Tell me—has anyone ever believed you when you told them not to worry?" Jacob took the protection regardless of his previous hesitance.
"Heh," I snorted to myself. This poor fool, I vaguely pitied him for the sole fact that he'd had to endure Newt's off-putting questions on our way here.
"My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice." Newt simply gave him a resolute nod while the other man raised his brows, slipping the protection over his head.
"Ara?" Newt's calling of my name came across the rubble and debris as more of a whisper due to the bellow trumpet noise that'd erupted further in the Zoo.
"Huh?" I turned to fully face them now, a nervous looking Muggle and my Newt, with my focus on the sound I'd heard. Newt's head immediately spun 'round to the noise we'd all heard as he snapped his case shut.
I padded over to them, my hand still gripped my wand tightly and my heartbeat began to jump. She was definitely close then. Perhaps a little too close?
"She's in season...to mate." Newt was now mumbling to himself and for a second, I was worried he'd spent a little too much time around the Muggle.
"What?" I raised a brow, glancing at the blond for a moment before looking in front of us again. It suddenly dawned on me-the Erumpent-she was in the throes of mating season.
Duh, Ara. What? Did you actually think he might've been mumbling about you? Well...to be fair, Newt had always taken on an oddly animalistic yet perspective when the topic of anything vaguely romantic came knocking.
Suddenly an irritatingly familiar smell sashayed its way into my nostrils- "Erumpent Musk-she's mad for it."
"Ugh." I blanched for a moment, my throat, trying to choke me for having inhaled such a vile odour.
I coughed, turning away from the wind's direction while I could and spotted our large, rotund, rhino-like creature. Her massive horn was protruding from her forehead, thankfully undamaged, which the same couldn't be said to her... target.
I couldn't blame her when she was five times his size. She was nuzzling up against the enclosure of a terrified hippo, poor lad. She seemed to quickly lose interest in him when Newt began to perform his "mating ritual."
His ritual was closer to a slightly unsettling series of grunts, wiggles, rolls, and undulating groans. I'd been informed by Newt truly that he'd designed it specifically to gain the Erumpent's attention. I didn't particularly enjoy the thought of being on the receiving end of it yet again.
I'd volunteered once before as a test subject-just for educational purposes, I swear. Okay...maybe I found it just a little funny to just watch a man that was usually so introverted suddenly jump up and moan at me.
Finally, Cassie turned away from the hippo entirely—she was 100% interested in Newt. They faced each other, circling round and round whilst cracking their mouths open to allow the undulating sound outwards.
I was always enthralled somehow by Newt's animal magnetism. He'd quickly turned a rather horny Erumpent into a gigantic puppy-like rhinoceros, something I'd never been able to do with Cassie.
Her horn glowed orange, a promising sign that she'd respond positively to Newt's dance. Newt rolled along the floor, which the Erumpent copied, she had no idea that she was moving nearer and nearer to the open case. A good thing, I'd say.
"Good girl—come on—into the case..." Newt was trying to coax her aloud when an all too familiar smell snuck its way into my nostrils.
"Jaco-" I hissed my scolding of the Muggle whose curiosity resulted in my lungs wanted to close in on themselves. Instead of a complete and might I just say, well-deserved scolding, my mouth simply fell open when he jumped.
"Oh no," I mumbled, bringing my wand up to ready myself against being trampled by Cassie.
It felt as though time slowed for a short moment, and all I could hear was the snorting sound of the Erumpent inhaling the musk. Jacob glanced around, appearing confused at what I imagined to be the expression of both terror and pity for him on my face.
He raised a brow when I glanced back at the creature, only daring to move my eyes rather than actually set her off. She'd rolled back off the ground, and was staring past Newt who was all but forgotten with wide eyes that stared back into mine.
Just as time slowed, it seemed to speed up trying to make up for whatever momentum it'd lost. Suddenly, the Erumpent charged towards the source of the foul smell, bellowing madly with great wet huffs of giddy determination.
"AAAHHH," I felt a breeze go by me with the sounds of Jacob wailing as I blinked.
"Shite." I wasn't sure how, but I stumbled backwards, landing on my arse with a great big wave of shock softening the blow. My mouth fell open as it'd dawned on me that my body seemed to recognise the danger of standing between an Erumpent and her potential mate.
Another girly shriek sounded off between bouts of what was surely thousands of pounds of damage to the park and zoo, drawing my attention. I could barely spot the man in front of the Erumpent.
The Muggle could run far faster than I'd ever given him credit for. He seemed to be running as fast as he could away from the creature with his arms and legs pumping away despite the armour's hindrance.
"Merlin's beard!" I looked back again at Newt, surprised to even hear that out of him. He so rarely ever raised his voice. Much less, let out that sort of exclamation.
I heard a shout this time and quickly elected to take off after our third person rather than stop to help my companion. "Sorry, Newt!" I shouted my apology over my shoulder as I took off, following the trail of wanton destruction.
"Ara, wait!" Newt's voice barely reached my ears over the sounds of wood cracking with thunderous hits and the whistling of the wind. So, I elected to pretend I hadn't heard him try to call me back...and if he ever brought it up, that was my story.
"HE-" I'd had to assume that it was either the Muggle's last cry for help as he was squashed under a horny Erumpent, or he was shouting at the creature itself. Neither were terribly great options. But, the latter meant he could still be mainly in one piece.
Finally, the pair were within view after I cleared what felt like the 40th pile of debris. Well, they were sort of, in view. Jacob was likely up in the tree that Cassie had gotten her horn stuck in, though the fact that both of them were seemingly unharmed was a relief.
"JAC-" I opened my mouth to yell out to him with my wand raised to try and somehow catch the Muggle should he fall.
"-Ob," my mouth slowly shut once more. "Shite," I watched the tree essentially collapse into a bubbling mess and a bit of a round man tumble behind the Erumpent. My legs didn't slow despite the fact that I almost stumbled onto my face when my feet seemingly couldn't keep up with the speed.
I raised my wand, not looking down with the fullest determination I could produce for this charm, "ARRESTO MOMEN-"
I couldn't quite get the rest of the charm out, despite the wave of force I watched my wand throw up and out into the snowy sky. I blinked when I glanced down, feeling nothing underneath my feet as it dawned on me that I'd run out of ground to run on.
Right as that realisation hit me, I found my hands immediately dropping my wand to brace for whatever sort of impact I'd gotten myself into. It felt like I might've slipped on ice at that point, as I couldn't stop sliding despite the sharp sensations of needles scraping my skin.
I could really only hear the bellowing and snorting of the Erumpent somewhere nearby as I tried to slow whatever speed I'd built up prior. Heaving through the feeling of quite literally tumbling down a rocky side of something cold, I didn't stop to take account of my surroundings. I needed to find my wand.
Everything was slightly blurry for a moment as I tried to blink it away, grabbing the first smooth thing that felt like it might've been my wand. I pointed it towards where I thought to be Jacob and Cassie and shouted once more though my hazy confusion, "ARRESTO MOMENTUM."
"Good show, Mr. Kowalski!" Newt? It sounded like Newt.
I let out a sigh of relief that his happy tone that my brain assumed came from my near right. If he was that happy, then the Muggle was well enough to live-hopefully.
"Oh, thank Merlin." I mumbled that more so to myself, as his presence also meant I could actually just sit down.
I rubbed my free hand across my head, wondering why it seemed to hurt so much right on my temple. I was also wondering why it'd taken so long to blink away the bleariness in my eyes. A cleaning spell would surely help whatever wound I'd gotten heal up faster, so I raised my wand to the pain and opened my mou-
"Ara?" I drew back from the sudden realisation that Newt's face was less than a couple centimetres from mine.
"Yeah?" I raised my left brow, a bit miffed that he'd somehow snuck up on me. I blinked again, feeling a wave of relief as Newt's blue eyes came into focus.
"Do you want your wand?" His expression was a mixture of dwindling excitement and worry.
"Wha-" My brows furrowed as I turned to stare at what I'd thought to be my wand in my hand, "oh."
A twig. I'd picked up a bloody twig.
Idiot.