12 minute read
magiCal plants & Creatures
In Memoriam: Mr T, a beloved Gryffindor cat
by nuhanala
Advertisement
Mr T
10 March 2007 - 17 February 2022
From 10 March 2007 to 17 February 2022, a small corner of this planet was graced by the presence of a genuinely sweet and loving cat. I believe he also brought a little joy to the Gryffindor tower, where he lived with me towards the end of his life and where he certainly earned his place with his Gryff personality. Mr T’s bravery manifested in small things, such as not shying away from the hoover or New Year’s fireworks and always strutting to greet strangers at the door. It also showed in the way he immediately and unhesitantly accepted me as his new companion back in 2013, and how he saved my life. He will be lovingly missed by me, his brother Mr W, and friends. Goodbye Mr T, my sweet little lion. Here is a poem to express my love for you.
How You Live On
I do not know about souls and gods and I may not believe in heaven and hell. It could be that dust is all you now are and now exist solely in my memories. But you taught me so much about unconditional love, about kindness and courage. You showed me what it means to be unassuming and forgiving. You left behind this legacy that I will let bloom in me into something beautiful. No matter where you now are or aren’t, I believe you are left behind in this intangible bond we shared, and I believe a part of you will always live on in these lessons you instilled in me, in this unbreakable love you surrendered to me through the paw print left on my heart, the gentle weight of which I memorised and will go on cherishing all through till the end of my own time.
A Walking Skeleton Might Not Always Be a Bad Omen
By iguerr
“What is this?” She asked sternly. The younger one answered. “What do you mean? It’s to protect us,” she said. “Do you really…” The woman began to say, but gave up. She knew it was no good to rationalize with that one. “I told her it was no good to us, but of course she wouldn’t listen.” “Stop!” She pleaded. “It’ll get sad! And you’re being mean with our protector!” “Jvj, sweetheart, you know creatures can’t understand human language. Besides, I don’t sense any power coming from it.” “But this one can understand, it’s very smart, you know! It was playing with us when we found it, it pretended to be very big and mean! We were super scared, Jta and I were.” “I was not that scared!” Jta protested. “Yes, you were!” Jvj insisted. “Were not!” “Okay, okay, girls. Why don’t you tell me how it happened? I did my part of the agreement, see? I prepared the fire. Now let us sit near it and you can tell me what happened.”
The girls were walking in unsure yet firm steps. Not exactly scared by the shadowy surroundings of the forest, but being careful, of course. They knew better than to just wander about carelessly in that place, even if they weren’t leaving the limits of the protections their Mbae had set in place. They trusted their power and ability and knew they should be safe within the radius of her protections. But there was just something about the atmosphere of that place that just made one be on edge all the time. No surprise the mortals were so afraid of it. The girls walked on. Jvj, despite being the younger sister, was very brave and never asked her sister to go ahead, or take a peek first, or anything like that. She’d always face things and jump headfirst in adventures. Her sister, Jta, was not a coward, but she was more careful and was usually the type to stand guard in situations like that, so she was behind, to keep an eye on anything who could be following them. Jvj stepped on a twig, breaking it. The sound seemed to expand for miles in the absolute silence that was pervaded among the trees. Jvj heard her sister shudder behind her. “It was just me, don’t worry,” she whispered over her shoulder, not turning totally to look back so she wouldn’t lose sight of what was ahead. She thought she could see a light ahead. “There,” she said, “I see a light there, looks like there’s a clearing right ahead.” “Be careful, go slow,” her sister said, quivering in her voice. “I am, let’s go.”
They arrived at the edge of the clearing. There were tons and tons of fireflies flying freely around the space, making it all receive a glowing light that contrasted completely the darkness of the forest. “Jvnje!” Jta called. “Look at that!” Jvj was about to answer when her sister gasped frightened and, stepping back, tripped and fell, with a little shriek. “We have to run, we have to get back, it’s a monster!” Her sister screamed from the floor.
“That was not how it went!” Jta protested. “What I said was simply ‘we have to go,’ meaning ‘we have to go hide, so we could see what the thing was.” “Okay, whatever, anyway,” made Jvj.
“We have to hide, it’s a monster!” Her sister screamed from the floor, pointing to the shadow that formed on the earth ahead and got bigger and bigger.
“We have to hide. Do you see that? It could be a monster!” Her sister screamed from the floor, pointing to the shadow that formed on the earth ahead and got bigger and bigger. jvj quickly and diligently helped her sister up and they hurried to behind a big tree, from where they could see the scene develop in the clearing while remaining unseen. The shadow elongated into the clearing, slicing the yellow-glowing green grass with a dark-as-the-nightitself shadow. But the shadow wasn’t one single strand of darkness – it had holes in it, spots where the light remained. That’s when Jvj realized. “Bones,” she whispered. “It’s a skeleton.” Her sister gave a little scream of horror. The quiver is her voice more present yet. “I did not scream!” “You did. Maybe you didn’t even realize.” “Mbae!” Jta pleaded for the authority figure to come to her defence. The woman complied. “Jvj, be faithful to the facts, will you?” “Okay, but she did scream a little,” the younger girl said, not much interested in further discussing this, she wanted to go on with the story.
The shadow entered further and further into the clearing. Jvj could see it now, the shape of it. The fireflies swarmed the creature as if they were attracted by it and flew around it, making it hard to figure out what it was; their light also made the shadow disappear for a moment. The creature shook its body and the fireflies went back to their free flight pattern, leaving the creature alone and revealing its image to the two girls. “It’s a horse! Jta, it’s a horse! But only the skeleton.” The horse had entered the clearing and was now engaging in chasing after the fireflies, shaking its boney body and making a clickity-clackity sound.
“Is it over?” The girl’s Mbae asked, after the young girl’s pause. The girl nodded. “Okay, so my turn,” the older girl said.
The girls were walking slowly because it was dark, it would be imprudent to go running about in a forest, the only thing you’d achieve with that was tripping on a root and falling face-first to the dirty ground. The older sister offered to have the rear and keep guard at any movement behind their backs. She was taller and had a better sense of the surroundings; being attentive to everything around her was an ability she had that others usually lacked. The girls weren’t afraid because they knew that being inside the protections of their Mbae they were safe from ill-intended spirits, and any wild creature that showed up could be dealt with, in the
worst scenario, by flight. So they went on firmly until they saw a light up ahead, that revealed a clearing. The older sister, who had a better earreach, could already hear a faint clickity-clackity sound coming from the clearing’s direction.
“Oh, you could not!” Jvj protested. “Yes, I did. It was very faint, but I did.” “Why didn’t you say anything, then?” “Because it was very faint, I didn’t want to startle you.” “I don’t believe you for a second.” “You don’t need to believe me, that’s the truth.” The older sister affirmed sternly. “Besides, you’d be scared and say we should go back.” “Would not! I’m less easily frightened than you!” “Nonsense, of course not. But shush, now, be quiet and let me continue.”
As the shadow crossed the grounds of the clearing and the fireflies swarmed over the creature, the older sister knew they needed not worry. That creature seemed to be having a hard enough time with harmless fireflies, so the two of them would be more than capable of dealing with it if it noticed their presence and became aggressive. After a couple of minutes of watching the horse click-clack around with the fireflies, it became clear to the older sister that they would spend the whole night behind that tree if it depended on the creature to discover them. So, judging it better to make a move and let whatever was going to happen, happen, she said, “Let’s go,” and started to walk towards the clearing. “Wait, didn’t you say it could be a monster?” The younger sister asked, scared. “It’s nothing we can’t deal with, let’s go.” She approached the edge of the clearing and stepped into it, receiving the golden glow upon herself. The horse creature noticed her there and in a sudden move stopped playing with the fireflies, turned to her and stood frozen in an expectant stance. The girl could hear her younger sister gasp behind her.
The girl could swear she heard her younger sister gasp with anticipation behind her. Jta stood on her two feet, her arms along her body, only a little bit raised as he opened them to give the creature a clear view of her chest. That, as was universally known, was the way of communicating to creatures that you mean no harm. Once this move is done, you need to wait for their response; it was positive – the horse pushed the ground with its front legs and stood only on its hind legs. That way, its belly –or what would be the belly, had it any flesh– got exposed, the most sensitive part of its body, signalling the vow of trust. It could also be seen as the creature imitating the posture, which also signalled trust. The girl gave one more step into the clearing, the horse got back down to its four legs and back to playing with the fireflies. As the two girls approached it, it quieted down to let them get near. “Oh, isn’t it beautiful!” Jvj said, patting its skull. “It’s a sack of bones,” Jta commented, to which the horse shook its head and looked down. “Oh, no, you made it sad! Don’t say those things! Here horsey-horsey, don’t mind her.” Incredibly, that seemed to work and the horse got cheerful again, it shook its tail, producing the clickity-clackity sound even louder. “We need to go back now, it’s already been too long,” the older girl told her sister. “Oh, let’s take it with us!” She pleaded.
“It won’t help us. Not even to scare other creatures off, it doesn’t emanate any threat power. And as if taking this as a cue, as the younger sister said “Don’t you want to come with us horsey-horsey?,” the horse shook its whole body and then the girls felt it. A quite strong threat power. “See! I knew it! It’s great to protect us, it’ll shoo everyone away, they’ll get scared and leave us alone. Let’s keep it!” Even the older sister had to admit that the power emanated was quite strong and that being able to hide it was an impressive ability; one that she had never seen a creature have. Once the girls beckoned to the way they had come from and began walking, the horse quickly understood and followed suit, clickiting-clackiting behind them.
As if understanding that the story had come to an end, the horse began to shake its tail, making all the three figures look at it. “And now what do we do with it? Does it eat?” The Mbae asked. “I don’t think it does,” Jta said. “At least I do agree it can be helpful to protect us.” And as if the word “protect” had triggered it, the horse got up and, still shaking its tail, seemed to invite the three humans to follow it into the forest. After putting the fire down, they did. After walking for a little while into the woods, all three of them shook and shivered. “What’s that?” Jta asked, alarmed. The horse shook its tail vehemently, not in the same manner it had been shaking it, not out of excitement, but as if using it to ring something. A little ahead of them, the two girls and the woman saw something that resembled a house, but not quite. More like a makeshift fortress. Of the same white-yellowish color of their hose guide. A fortress made of bones. And as their guide shook its tail with vehemence, they spotted other white-yellowish figures getting out of the fortress and the threat energy they had been kicked with lessening. Not vanishing totally, but lessening like someone letting their guard down, but not throwing the sword to the ground entirely. “See! I knew it! It’ll give us shelter for the night! I told you!” “No, you didn’t,” Jta rolled her eyes. “I did say it would help protect us.” Jta couldn’t refute this. “Mbae,” she whispered instead. “Hm?” “Those are bones… what if it wants our bones?” “Forest creatures don’t eat humans, dear, especially non-mortals, our flesh wouldn’t taste anything like what they usually like to eat.” The woman and the older girl were in a mix of being careful and hesitant about the offer of shelter and being so tired that they welcomed it gladly while the younger girl’s eyes shone radiant at the sight, as if, where her sister and Mbae saw a makeshift bone fortress, she saw a marble castle.
