"Delivery from Brood and Peck!"
"Yes, thank you!" I took my gloves off and walked over to the delivery man. I signed the parchment and he helped me unload the fifty pound bags of feed. It was early in the morning, but the sun was already blazing. It was my first full day in Feldcroft. Percival had already left to go sells his potions and Rose brought me some breakfast. I hadn't seen Sebastian yet this morning, but I got to work. I waved to the delivery man as he left. He had a thestral pulling his cart, which I gave some treats to before they set off.
I filled up two pales of feed and walked over to the nifflers and puffskeins which were housed next to each other. I dumped the feed into each pen and also filled up their troughs of water. As I was headed back to my house to get another load of feed, Sebastian walked out of his house.
"Good morning."
"Good morning Sebastian. Did you sleep good last night?"
"I did." He looked at me up and down, then raised his eyebrows. "How long have you been awake? Your clothes are already exceptionally dirty."
"I've been awake since about five this morning, but I didn't start working until about six thirty."
"Is this gonna be everyday that you get up early?"
"Six thirty is about the time that the beasts start looking for breakfast, so probably. I was also waiting on a delivery from Brood and Peck for the feed I needed for the smaller species species."
"What's left to do, I'd like to help."
"I need to get the ferrets to the hippogriffs, they get one each. I also need to check on the unicorn and try to guess how far along she is, oh and the diricawls need this pumpkin and some feed."
"I'll take care of the Diricawls and meet you at the unicorn pen, sound good?"
"That it would be very helpful, then the morning chores will be done once I tend to the Hippogriffs. Oh, do mind the diricawls. They freak out when they see a pumpkin coming their way."
"How bad could it be?"
"You'll see, good luck." He grabbed the pumpkin with one hand and the pale of feed with the other. I smiled as he walked away.
"Alright you, here, take it." I went into the hippogriff pen and they were biting at the ferrets hanging from my shoulder. "You guys really are spoiled, you know that?" I walked out and went over to the unicorn. She walked up to me and I gave her a few treats. "Hey mama, can I take a look at you?" She turned sideways and presented me her belly. I pushed on it a little to see how much room was left. It was still a little squishy and she didn't look very big.
"Ahhh, help me!" I turned around to see Sebastian running past the pen, still holding the pumpkin with the diricawls right behind him.
"Drop the pumpkin!" He immediately threw the pumpkin and the diricawls got straight to work. I walked over to me him and he was completely out of breath. "I told you."
"I... didn't... think it was going... to be that bad."
"Maybe I should do the diricawls from now on. They are very temperamental."
"They are psychotic. Oh, also the galleons that I owe Percival went missing last night. Did you happen to see where I put them last night after dinner?" I tried to keep in my laughter as much as I could while I led him to the nifflers.
"Who took them?" One of the younger ones walked up to me and sniffed my hand that I had stretched out. "Hand them over. We need them." The niffler put its nose down and let out a quiet groan. It reached in it's pouch and gave me Sebastian's galleons. "Here you are. You may want to hide anything shiny from here on out."
"Oh dear, this is gonna be a fun life with you isn't it."
"I probably should have warned you better as to what you were getting into, but You are the Sebastian Sallow."
"Ha Ha very funny." We walked back over to our homes and stopped at Sebastian's garden. "Did you figure out when she is due?"
"I think in the fall. She still has quite a ways to go." He stood up and I saw that he had a few different vegetables in his hands. I followed him into his house and sat down at his table. He had some parchment laid out and his quill was untouched by the ink. "Are you writing some letters?"
"Hm? Oh, no. I'm going to try and start writing my first masterpiece."
"Oh, so it's a masterpiece is it?"
"Everything I will write from here on out will be a masterpiece love." He walked behind me and kissed the top of my head. "What do you have planned for today?"
"I think I'm going to take a walk. Try to think of what I need to do for the phoenix and the graphorn pen."
"Well, when you return, I should be in the structure on the other side of town I showed you a few years ago."
"Alright, well I shall see you when I return."
"Don't be late for lunch!" I waved to Sebastian and closed the door behind me. I set off for the forest and walked the path that went through it.
I smelled the warm air as a breeze blew through my hair. I could barely see the rays of sun coming through the tops of the trees. I placed my hands in my pockets and headed a little deeper in. I still wasn't to far from Feldcroft, but walking up hill got me a little tired. I sat down next to a tree and let my back rest up against the trunk. I shut my eyes and the breeze through the trees was still strong.
"Well, well, well... What do we have here boys? Someone new stumbles onto our land." I quickly opened my eyes and stood up. Five me were in front of me. but the one in the front looked the best taken care of. He wore a long black coat with a maroon colored button up shirt. His pants were black as well along with his hair.
"Who are you?"
"The name is Cromwell, and these are my men. The names don't matter." I raised my wand at them and the four men behind him rose theirs.
"Are you poachers?"
"Ah, a brilliant one this is. Did you hear that, took the little lady just one guess."
"Should we take her to the castle sir?"
"No... no... I think maybe that we can just kill her here."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Well now, we can't have you ruin our operation we have here. See, I'm in charge of every poacher from north of Hogwarts all the way to the sea in the south. They all answer to me. It's really unlucky for you really. See, I don't normally come out of my castle very often, but for some reason I wanted to go on a, let's say walk, this morning."
"Let's get on with it shall we then Mr. Cromwell? It's really been awhile since I've had a great battle." He clenched his jaw at me, most likely doesn't like being interrupted.
"Kill her."
"Avada Ked-" I gathered my ancient power and lifted the man in the air and crumbled him into the ground. I then went for Mr. Cromwell who wasn't phased by what I just did, unlike the remaining three just were. I gathered the power in my hand and sent the string of light at him. He waved his hand in front of him and a light blue shield produced in front of him. It completely destroyed my attack.
"So, there is someone else out there that can see the ancient power. The rumors are true! How lucky am I to find you here... Your Ancient power won't hurt me at all, I can control it far better than you." I was stunned, I couldn't move as he walked closer to me. I heard something fall next to me and start to shake.
"A graphorn!" I was lifted into the air and landed on the back of my graphorn. We ran all the way back to Feldcroft where I slid off the graphorn's back. He opened his mouth and I caught my nab sack that fell out. Sebastian came running up behind me and held my shoulders.
"What happened, what's going on?" He looked up at the graphorn who bowed and laid down behind me.
"The leader of the poachers found me in the woods. I wouldn't have made it out alive if it wasn't for..." Sebastian looked at me then back up to the graphorn. He let go of me and kneeled to him. the graphorn laid his head on the ground. Sebastian gently laid his hand on his head. "Thank you for bringing her back here safely." He then turned to me again. "Let's get you inside, come on." He brought me to his house and made me a cup of tea.
"Sebastian, there was something else. He wielded ancient magic."
"Are you sure?"
"He didn't just deflect my attack, it just disappeared when it came in contact with a protection spell he conjured."
"Is he coming here?"
"I don't know. He didn't mention a plan. We should be on high alert though."