Eleanor had woken up the following morning feeling refreshed and ready for whatever this day was going to throw at her... starting with a missing Newt. Why is this man always missing, she thought while throwing her legs out of bed and changing into a peach pink dress. She checked the bathroom, but was confused to find it empty. Her eyes fell to the case on the desk that was shut closed. She unlatched it and yelled down.
"Newt? Are you in there?" She waited for a response and didn't hear anything. Maybe he just went out for a walk. She placed the case on the ground and lowered herself in. Eleanor got to work to feed all of the creatures and wish them all good morning. It was probably a good hour before she returned back to her room above. She became very worried when Newt wasn't in the room still. Why wouldn't he leave a note?
She walked over to the door and went to open, but it was locked.
"What the...?" She murmured and jiggled it harder to see if it would budge. It didn't... she drew her wand out and pointed it towards the door.
"Alohomora," She said and nothing.
"Aberto?" She tried a different one.
"Open Sesame?" She sighed in frustration. She looked over to the desk in the corner and saw a piece of parchment with fresh ink.
Eleanor,
King Khufu has taken me to retrieve the creatures from the dungeons and I will be continuing tHis journEy on my own. By the time you are reading this, I wilL be in Poland and away from you. Do not try to find me.
N
"What a load of rubbish," Eleanor muttered. She immediately noticed how Newt made words darker than the rest and capitalized some letters.
"King Khufu has taken me to the dungeons. Help me." She reread it and knew she had to get her shit together. She wasn't sure if she should wait for someone to get her and open the door when she had an idea. Eleanor ran back to the case and practically dove in head first.
"Poppy...? I need your help," Eleanor said to the bowtruckle peeping her head out of her home. Eleanor held her hand out to let Poppy climb on and into her hair. Here eyes directed to the small cocoon at Newt's desk. The swooping evil rested peacefully and Eleanor wasn't sure if it would respond to her the way it did for Newt. She knew it would help with protection and she didn't even know if Newt had his wand or not. She carefully placed the cocoon in her sleeve for easy access and ran back up the stairs.
"Poppy, I need you to get this open for me, alright?" She said to the bowtruckle and watched her work her magic. In less than a minute, the door was open and Eleanor poked her head out around the corner. No one was in the hallway, but now she had to find a way to the dungeons.
She placed Poppy back in her hair, grabbed the case, and decided to go the opposite way the lady had brought them the previous night. Carefully, Eleanor made sure every step she took was quiet, she turned a corner and quickly retreated. There was a woman coming towards her rather quickly with a wand in her hand.
"Stupefy," She muttered while revealing herself to the lady. Fortunately for Eleanor, the lady wasn't expecting to see her and she was nailed with the curse and sent flying back. Eleanor ran over to her and noticed that the wand in her hand belonged to her boyfriend. She grabbed the wand and shoved it in her pocket while pushing the lady into a side room to keep her from being found and alerting any others that happen to come this way.
Now being even more concerned about Newt, Eleanor began to run, her bare feet were slapping against the cold hard stone floor and she prayed no one could hear her. She rounded a corner and stood at the top of a staircase leading down into darkness.
"If you go down there, you will never come back," a deep voice from behind her said. Eleanor whipped her head around to meet eyes with Djedefre.
"What have you done?" Eleanor spoke harshly to the prince.
"I can not be associated with my fathers actions, but if I stand in the way he will have me killed. He is down there, but you must choose each step carefully and think your answers over before committing to them. Getting back out is even harder than going in." The prince said and without another word, he turned around and walked away. Eleanor was so confused about what had just happened, but held onto his words about being careful about what steps to take. She learned about trap doors and other traps in her Ancient Runes class, but never thought she would ever have to deal with them personally.
"Lumos," She said and lit up the stairs while descending down them. There were quite a few discolored stairs that Eleanor had to skip over deeming they looked a little suspicious. She was hoping she was getting to the bottom soon, but wondered when she would run into whatever the prince warned her about.
She rounded a corner and narrowly dodged an arrow that went whizzing past her cheek. Eleanor's eyes shot in every direction trying to figure out where it came from, but didn't see anything in front of her. Another one came from the wall in front of her and she used her wand to deflect it. She then pointed it at the wall.
"Reducto," Eleanor said and blasted the wall into a pile of ashes. "Merlin..."
Eleanor stood in front of a massive pile of gold, jewels, gems, and crowns. She did not dare to touch it, but ran past to see if she had gotten any closer to finding Newt.
Instead she was met face to face with a beast. She stumbled back, not wanting it to feel threatened.
"Another wizard?" It spoke curiously. Eleanor was shocked, but bowed her head and curtsied to the creature in front of her. She carefully observed it's body language as it's wings spread open and it stretched it's lioness body like a cat. Sphinxes were very rare to come by and was curious what this one was doing in a pyramid all chained up. Most likely guarding something. Eleanor wasn't sure what to say to the Sphinx because she knew if she said the wrong thing, it would eat her in one bite. It's a treacherous and merciless creature, and will kill those who cannot answer her riddle.
"My name is Eleanor," She finally said and put her wand back in her pocket to prove she wasn't there to hurt the creature. She noticed multiple wounds and scars around the creatures face and body. Even one of her wings looked bent crooked.
"Eleanor... can you tell me... What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?" The sphinx asked her curiously and watched in amusement. Eleanor thought for a while and was praying to Merlin that she was right with her answer.
"Man." She began. "Man. As an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a walking stick." She finished and looked at the Sphinx who had a smug look on her face.
"You are smarter than you look Eleanor." It spoke back to her.
"Thank you," Eleanor said as she watched the creature move to reveal a doorway while the chains rattled on the ground. "Do you have a name?"
The creature looked taken aback at the question, but laid down silently and smiled.
"My name is Herma," It said sadly.
"Did King Khufu do this to you?" She asked while addressing the wounds and scars.
"I have been down here longer than you have been alive Eleanor. I have endured pain given by those above. Those I do not know names of." Herma said.
"I can help you, you know? I... I can heal you and get you out of here." Eleanor spoke gently and saw a flash of worry in Herma's eyes.
"You would do that for a monster?" Herma spoke.
"I would do it for anyone. You are not a monster, Herma. You are beautiful and deserve to enjoy the outside world." Eleanor said and reached her hand to stroke her fur.
"I... just need help finding someone. He is down in the dungeons. He hasn't done anything wrong, you see, we are just trying to free the creatures in here." Eleanor said and her head turned when she heard footsteps rushing from behind her.
"Incarcerous!" A man yelled at Herma and immediately she was tied in ropes and struggling to breathe with the rope around her neck holding her down.
"No!" Eleanor screamed at the man who fired the spell who's head snapped to her and gave her a wicked smile before throwing a curse at her. Eleanor deflected it towards the ceiling and it began crumbling.
"Oppugno!" Eleanor pointed her wand to the gold bricks in the room over and watched the bricks fly at the man and attack him. He tried to fight it off, but they were too heavy and way too many and Eleanor realized she just watched a man be crushed to death by gold. Serves him right, she thought. She immediately turned to Herma who was still choking and nearing passing out at this point.
"Relashio," Eleanor said while holding onto the rope and chains tightly and watched them fall off the Sphinx who was gasping for air.
"You're alright," Eleanor said and smoothed out her fur.
"Eleanor... get me out of here." Was all Herma said as she passed out and her head hit the stone floor. Eleanor wasn't sure what to do at this point. She had to find Newt, but at the same time she felt obligated to help Herma. She felt it was best to find Newt now and come back to get Herma as they leave. She ran down the corridor Herma was hiding and yelled.
"Newt! Newt! Can you hear me?" She yelled and didn't hear an answer. She was so worried that she forgot to watch where she was stepping. She felt a heavy pain in her thigh and yelled out in agony as her hands immediately went to her thigh. She felt the all too familiar sticky warm substance running down her leg and something sticking out of her thigh.
She casted lumos and saw a long arrow protruding from her bleeding thigh. She couldn't let this stop her right now and she knew if she pulled it out, she would bleed to death. She continued running down the corridor despite the shooting pain in her leg.
"Newt!" She cried out exasperated.
"El!? Eleanor!? Is that you?" She heard him. She heard Newt's voice echo around the walls and at first she thought she was imagining it until she saw him caged in a cell.
"Newt!" She limped over and placed her hands on the cell on top of Newts.
"I've never been so happy to see you." He said and kissed her through the bars.
"Stand back, I gotta get you out of here." She said and raised her wand and blasted the door open.
"El... what the hell happened to your leg? Is that an arrow? Did you get stabbed?" Newt was filling her head with questions and was beginning to get dizzy. She handed Newt his wand and stumbled a little bit.
"It's an arrow, I stepped on a trap. We need to get out of here." She said when she heard something in a cage next to them. A creature stepped into the light and Eleanor nearly dropped her wand.
"A thunderbird..." Eleanor whispered and limped over to the creature. Poppy climbed out from her hair and picked the lock to open the cage cautiously. Eleanor placed the case on the ground and pulled out a raw piece of chicken from inside. It immediately caught the attention of the thunderbird as she dropped it back in the case and watched the creature dive in after it.
"Eleanor there's more creatures down here. They are the traffickers. King Khufu is the trafficker. He knew Dumbledore was sending us and lied. There was never a package." He said and lead her to another cage with two kneazles in it. Poppy helped them with the lock and she scooped up the cat like creatures and placed them into the case. The last cage, which Poppy unlocked, held three jackalopes. Again, Eleanor was able to scoop up the malnourished creatures and place them into her case.
"Is that all of them?" Newt asked and Eleanor thought about Herma.
"No, there's one more. We need to go now." She held onto Newt for extra support and they walked out of the dungeon into the corridor.
Newt held onto her waist tightly and they walked around a corner. Next thing Eleanor knew, Newt was thrown back into the wall and was slumped over unconscious. Eleanor screamed at the sight of her boyfriend and pulled out her wand to face the man in front of her, King Khufu.