love love love always to my beautiful betas

CHAPTER THREE

The duo appeared right at the edge of town with a loud CRACK and Newt, still holding Tina's hand, led them to the bookshop he saw on his arrival that morning. A small bell rang and woke up the shopkeeper as Newt followed Tina through the doorway.

"Hey, Tina, any news on Mr. Lindström? We got some more books in on wandlore if you want to take a look." The young man didn't wait for an answer as he crossed towards a pile on the back counter.

"Not yet, Richy," Some of the color had drained from Tina's face. "This here's Newt Scamander, he's here to help find Elias. We're looking for books on native languages of the area. Got any in mind?"

"Sure thing," Richy said and waved his wand. Three books floated from the shelves and landed in a neat pile on a table by the window. "You need some coffee? Scones? Oh, we got those crullers you like."

A hand shot up between two shelves, "Tea would be nice," Newt requested and his hand disappeared to flip through the titles low on the shelf.

Richy made their drinks and sent them over to the table where Tina began skimming through the first book. Newt finally joined her with a few more books on American legends and the two settled in comfortable silence as they began their research.

"All these books were written by settlers," Tina said, as she heavily shut the last one in the pile. "Not even a mention of any words just that a native language exists. I could have written this garbage." Tina grumpily slumped in her chair and grabbed her coffee. Richy had charmed their mugs to refill and stay hot.

"No mention of a hoofed sentient creature in these. Only creature listed in this region is the Sasquatch." Newt shut his book and grabbed a scone. "Everybody already knows about them," Newt said as he bit into the treat.

Tina merely looked at him with a blank gaze of confusion in answer.

"They're the whole reason MACUSA moved to New York! Are all Americans this oblivious?" Newt grumbled into his tea.

Tina giggled, finding his lack of tact charming. The pair took a break from their research to enjoy a light lunch.

"So how did you end up North? I thought they let you back in the DMLE." Newt asked breaking the silence.

"They did," Tina piped up, "But after you left, I really started to notice how much of the job was spent enforcing backwards laws. You can only obliviate so many no-maj before you get tired of it. One day, I was taking a fella down to Wand Registration and that's when I bumped in to Elias. He told me about his travels, the intricate magic involved in wand making, getting to actually help people and I was convinced. We left to come up North that week. I've been putting a lot of work into the research and practicing the spells. Elias is a wonderful teacher."

They both had smiles on their faces; Tina, reminiscing about her time with her mentor and Newt, whose Hufflepuff nature enjoyed hearing people speak about their hobbies and things they enjoy. The two locked eyes and began to lean in towards each other when Newt suddenly sprung out of his chair and out the door. She was taken aback for a moment but stood up to follow, tossing a galleon to Richy and hurried after Newt.

In front of the Stag's Saloon, Newt peered around the edge of the doorway, then popped back into place, squeezing himself against the wall with attempted stealth.

"What are you doing?" Tina asked, standing in front of the window with no measure to hide her presence.

"A man just walked in there." Newt snuck a glance into the pub again.

"That's well within the realm of reality, Newt. So why are you hiding?" Tina rubbed at her furrowed brow.

"He had tattoos," Newt said before jumping to the other side of the doorway for a better viewpoint.

"Well, a lot of the local Abenaki-oh!" Tina replied with sudden realization and crouched to peer around the doorway to spy with Newt.

The man in question sat at the bar talking to the pretty woman behind the counter. The tattoos circling the length of his arm looked like the markings Tina had seen at the mouth of the cave. She pulled Newt's journal from his satchel and, after flipping to the right page, Tina confirmed his theory then tossed the journal to Newt. He looked at the page then back around the edge of the doorway then Newt nodded in agreement.

"You go in there," he mouthed silently to Tina and gestured with his head towards the man.

"No, you do it," she mouthed back even though no one would have heard their conversation. Tina didn't notice Newt pulled his wand out until she slid to the middle of the entrance with a surprised "Oh!" that gained the attention of everyone inside. She gave a nervous wave accompanied with an awkward smile.

"Nice going, Scamander," Tina growled at the chuckling wizard and stepped inside.

It was a typical mountain pub resembling a log cabin in the way that everything looked to be carved out of wood. Every wall had a mounted animal head hanging on it. Tina passed by a mounted boar's head that snorted at her like it was trying to tear itself off the wall. A chandelier made out of antlers and charmed to glow hung in the middle of the room. The tattooed man sat at a long bar that wrapped around to the back wall. She slowly walked over, sat on the stool beside him, and ordered a soda.

"Hi, I'm Tina," she leaned over and held out a hand in introduction.

"Sahale," the man said and took her hand.

"Sahale to you as well," she replied.

"No," he chuckled slightly in annoyance, "Sahale is my name. Sahale Mocquien. Nice to meet you, Tina." Sahale bowed slightly and noticed Tina trail her eyes to the tattoos circling up his arms.

"I have all my documentation. I'm registered with the Maliseet tribe out of Aukpaque, if that's what this is about." Sahale began to reach into his coat pocket for the papers.

"No, no, not at all! I'm sorry, my friend and I were actually wondering if you could help us with something."

Out of the corner of her eye, Tina saw Newt sneaking closer and closer, hiding and ducking behind other patrons as he encroached on the bar, and finally sat down on the stool behind Sahale at the bar.

"Where is your friend?" Sahale looked out the window to the street.

"This is Newt Scamander," Tina gestured towards him, bringing Sahale's attention back to the bar.

"I am Sahale," he said and shook Newt's hand. "You two are certainly an interesting couple."

"Oh no, Tina and I are good friends," Newt said while Tina spoke at the same time.

"Well one day I hope to be-"

"Really?" Newt said with unabashed surprise.

"Um," Tina began to blush with mild embarrassment and quickly tried to change the subject, "so, Sahale, we were wondering if you could do some light translation for us."

"S-sure what did you have in mind?" Sahale was brought out of his confusion back to the original conversation.

"We found some markings around the mouth of a cave a few miles from here and some of them match up to your tattoos. Would you help us to figure out what it means?" Tina asked hopefully.

"This is ancient Algonquin imagery," Sahale rotated his arm so Tina and Newt could get a better look at all of the tattoos. "My tribe uses these images to create a stronger bond with our inner being."

"You are all animagi?" Newt asked with bewildered excitement.

"Yes and other things, our elders can see the being we are bonded with and they lead us on our path from birth. Our names are one with our spirit as well. Once the bonding is complete, we receive our tattoos to better strengthen that connection so we can transform in any circumstance and hold our form under duress," Sahale explained while Newt and Tina eagerly listened.

"I met some local animagi in New Guinea that had a similar process with their connection to their animagus. Would it be too forward to ask to see you transform?" Newt's intellectual curiosity was piqued.

"Not at all," said Sahale, "but my tribe is not allowed to transform within the town limits. Please, come to dinner in my village and we can all show you our inner spirits."

"Brilliant." A huge smile spread across Newt's face "I need to stop and grab my case first but we can be on our way after that. Right, Tina?"

"Oh, sure!" Tina hid her apprehension at the idea of being surrounded by strangers who could turn into unknown beasts. "Sahale, can you side along apparate with us up to my cottage?"

"I've done it a few times." Sahale paid for his drinks and the three of them got up to head for the door. "I much prefer flying over that pulling and squeezing through space."

"Oh, your animagus is a bird?" Newt was captivated by their new companion.

"I am a falcon. My whole family was chosen for flight. Have been for generations," Sahale said as he searched his pocket and brought out a clear crystal that he placed in Newt's hand. "This will bring you to our village right outside my house. Both of you must touch it and say 'olibamkanni' and the stone will bring you to us."

"It's like a portkey!" Tina was fascinated by their ancient magic and was eager to learn more.

"Yes," Sahale replied, "but you can use any stone as long as it has been bathed in the earth of the location you wish to travel to. I look forward to showing you what magic our people have to offer." He pulled a similar crystal out of his pocket and with a final "olibamkanni" he disappeared into the air like a mist.

"Wow that was impressive. What do they use instead of wands? Why are there so many laws to push them away when there's so much we can learn?" Tina was getting worked up thinking about how backwards MACUSA was with secrecy and seclusion and could hardly be bothered to suppress the questions as they tumbled from her mouth. Newt reached out and grabbed her hand to stall her angry pacing.

"Shall we go get my creatures then have dinner with what I'm sure will be our new friends? Maybe even learn a thing or two?" Newt asked and Tina nodded. Newt pulled her closer, wrapped an arm around her, and then the pair disappeared to the cottage with a loud CRACK.