Author's Note: Written for…
10 Characters, 10 Prompts Challenge. Prompts: Lorcan Scamander, tangible
"It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!" Challenge.
Rummikub Game Challenge. Prompt: Skookum – excellent; first-rate
Real
There were some things in life that a person could easily accept without proof. The Scamander twins had been forced to blindly believe in more than that, growing up with an eccentric mother and grandfather who would often tell them stories of amazing creatures that they would later come to learn didn't really exist.
By seven years old, Lorcan Scamander was tired of this routine. While his brother enjoyed the stories, Lorcan much preferred talking with his father's family and getting to learn about real, live, tangible creatures.
Still, he didn't object to going to Australia that summer with the whole family after his mother found someone willing to fund an expedition to find the gulping plimpy.
Lorcan was made to carry a sack of gurdyroots during their trek across the continent, searching out small lakes and rivers where even normal plimpies could be found.
"Australia grows the best gurdyroots," his mother assured him. "Skookum. But remember, they'll only repel the gulping plimpies, not the regular variety."
He didn't believe a word of it, of course.
They passed over lake after lake in the month and half they were there, but all they could find were the average green, two-legged plimpies.
Then a local woman told them about a hidden cove where they could find what they were looking for, but they'd have to go at dusk.
"This will be our last try," Rolf promised as the sun set and Luna prepared to dive into the lake.
Lorcan rolled his eyes at his dad's claim – he'd been saying 'last try' for a week. But while his parents were talking, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look and saw two eyes peering at him from the water's surface.
"I thought plimpies couldn't breathe on land," he called back to his family, edging closer to the water.
"They can't," Rolf told him distractedly as he helped Luna find the gillyweed in their packs.
"Only the gulping ones," she added.
But there it was right in front of him, slowly coming up onto the shore on its two webbed feet, softly gasping for air. It looked exactly like a normal plimpy – a round green fish on legs – but it had a silver tinge to its gills.
"Um, 'Sander, I think you might want to find the camera."
The rest of the family turned to the water just as half a dozen more gulping plimpies appeared at the surface. Behind him, Lorcan could hear his mother let out a delighted squeal, and then the clicking of the camera.