บท 328: Disappointment after Disappointment - A mournful Cry!
A sheltered creek marched through the vibrant jungle, the environment full of afternoon's burning sunlight, cries of a thousand creatures, and songs of ghosts and birds alike.
Madam Villanelle's wand was out, her brows pressed together in a deep frown.
A few steps behind her, Darcie marveled at the sight with a stunned expression.
They had flown for quite some time before arriving here after they met with the rare magical creature, Zouwu.
It was a lush forest, and even Madam Villanelle had to search for half an hour before pinpointing the location of the nest of the magical creature she had been looking for.
Avalon was too big for anyone to scour its land thoroughly. Much less needed to be said to monitor all creatures all the time.
Creatures with intelligence will never attack a human here, Madam Villanelle had told Darcie midway. It doesn't mean that they will submit to us easily as per our desire. No matter what, they are beasts and have their own land, children, and pride to look after.
There was a doubt in Darcie's mind that suggested Madam Villanelle was just too familiar and had an odd way with magical creatures.
Still, she had understood what her mentor meant to say, then.
Even if Madam Villanelle could interact with certain creatures of high intelligence, she should refrain from acting too presumptuous in front of them.
And now that Darcie saw this scene, she agreed with her wholeheartedly.
There was an enormous boulder in front of them, oval-shaped, and its top was relatively flat.
Over this flat-topped boulder was a nest.
But it didn't belong to a bird.
There was a 10 ft tall winged-serpent coiling in this nest.
It had azure-colored fur that looked like scales, and its mouth felt more like that of an eagle than a serpent.
Its wings were huge as well, darkening everything under the boulder when it brandished them.
The crown of azure plumage over its head gave it a majestic appearance.
And if Darcie wasn't mistaken, then she even saw a pair of bird-like legs on its belly, with sharp talons jutting out like hooks.
It was an Occamy — a winged, serpentine magical beast.
Madam Villanelle had brought Darcie to it exactly because it was a serpentine creature.
However, Occamies were extremely aggressive and even more protective of their eggs, which were made of the purest and soft silver.
Not to mention, they were choranaptyxic, meaning they grew or shrank to fit space.
From this, one could guess how large the size of this nest was.
The moment adult Occamy found Madam Villanelle approaching its nest, it let out an ear-piercing cry that was a mix of a bird's call and a serpent's hiss.
It beat its wings, creating gales toward the two witches.
Madam Villanelle stopped.
"Lola!" she cried. "Have you not recognized me?!"
Then the older witch gently swayed her wand left and right, creating a green-golden path of sparks and flowers.
The adult Occamy's bird-like eyes followed the wand's movement, and then her entire head swayed along with it.
After a few minutes, the Occamy let out another cry, but its intensity was much less threatening than before. It coiled and coiled, beating its wings.
Then the winged-serpent lunged at Madam Villanelle.
The older witch joined her palms, making a cup, and Lola shrunk instantaneously.
When Darcie walked forward, she saw a tiny serpent coiling and crying merrily in her mentor's palm.
"Let's go," Madam Villanelle said, approaching the nest.
The nest was just too high for them to see into it.
So the older witch flicked her wand again, making Darcie and herself float up, bringing their waists to the nest's edge.
There were three young Occamies coiled inside many spherical broken pieces of glittering silver; the shell of eggs.
"Try it," Madam Villanelle said, gesturing with her chin. "Just make a cup with your palms, and wait for them to approach you."
Darcie did as she was told.
The tiny Occamies slithered into her tinier palms, shrinking to become overgrown worms.
Their fur felt moist and smooth to Darcie, and there was a bird-like smell on them that even their serpentine ancestry couldn't get rid of.
Just when it seemed all the young Occamies were getting comfortable in Darcie's palms, all slithered back to the nest.
Madam Villanelle caressed the shrunken adult Occamy's beak, and then let it return to the nest where it returned to its original size.
…
Darcie said nothing while going back.
Only when they were mounting their brooms did Madam Villanelle suddenly squeak. "Darcie, look!"
Darcie looked at her mentor, who was pointing up at a tree, and followed her gaze.
At some height, over a branch, there was a branch of Bowtruckles looking down at them.
They all looked like several stalks of grass and green branches came alive. For their branch to be here meant that this tree possessed wand-quality wood. (-Branch: group of Bowtruckles-)
And it signified even more.
"There must be a colony of fairies nearby," Darcie mumbled, her eyes thoughtful.
Madam Villanelle nodded.
"Fairies are easily obtained in Diagon Alley," she added, praising Darcie's acute remark inwardly. "But if there's a Fairy Queen among them, then there would be nothing more wonderful than that."
Fairies were small, humanoid magical beasts with large insect-like wings, which were transparent or multicolored.
They possessed diminutive intelligence and lived mainly in woodlands.
The fairy was a vain creature and allowed itself to be used as decoration by wizardkind. Because of their vanity, fairies were almost constantly grooming themselves.
However, a Fairy Queen was a different matter altogether.
Its intelligence was no less than that of a human, and unlike the normal fairies of its colony, it possessed great magical power and could even converse in human speech.
Madam Villanelle flew over the jungle with Darcie, trying to find the fairies' colony according to the description.
It didn't take them much effort to find it.
Alas! There was no Fairy Queen among them. Not all colonies had such a creature, otherwise, it would be just too absurd.
Cry!
Suddenly, a mournful cry reverberated through the jungle, sending all fairies running in a clamor.
This?! Darcie knew what was happening, and why the cry had sounded full of sadness and ominous.
Despite the beauty of the fairies, even they were the prey of some creatures up the food chain.
Darcie and Madam Villanelle looked up and saw a vulture-like creature fly by.
"An Augurey!" Madam Villanelle named it.
The Augurey, also known as the Irish Phoenix, was a thin and mournful-looking magical bird, somewhat like a small underfed vulture in appearance, with greenish-black feathers and a sharp beak.
They were intensely shy creatures, and there was a time when wizards took its cries as an inauspicious signal of approaching death.
However, it was nothing but a misconception.
"Augureys don't cry without reason," Darcie said, her eyes following the disappearing creature in the sky. "A rainfall is coming, I think."
To her side, Madam Villanelle let out a breath.
"Sigh! If it was anywhere else, then you would've been right, Darcie," she mumbled. "Augureys cry a lot here. I didn't know we had inadvertently come so close to that place."
Which place? Darcie wanted to ask, but when she saw a frown and a touch of apprehension on her mentor's face, she didn't.
"I think I should try it," she said instead. "Augureys are quiet, and I like that."
At this time, even if a creature was mute, Darcie would settle for that, too.
Her face wasn't showing it outright, but a deep sense of disappointment was lingering in her heart. She knew her capabilities, and she had not overestimated herself.
It was this knowledge itself that made Darcie question her fate, to begin with.
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