138 Chapter 135: Acquired

Dora looked in the eyes of the Horned Serpent as it slowly rose to the surface, too surprised to even want to react. After coming out of the water, the jewel on its forehead shined even brighter and the rest of its body also started to emerge.

Dora was dimly aware of the fact that she should be trying to run away at full speed right now. But the shock of encountering this particular XXXXX creature was quite overwhelming to her.

Horned Serpents are very intelligent creatures who have the power of invisibility and flight at the very least. Thus, it doesn't come as a surprise that there have been no confirmed sightings of them except in legends and myths.

'You can't find a find Horned Serpent unless it wants you to find it,' She remembered reading.

There were some ancient families in the past who supposedly had the ability to hunt them, but after no sightings of any Horned Serpent for decades, they have long been declared extinct for a long time.

Their latest sighting was the fairytale-like story of Isolt Sayre, the founder of Ilvermorny, who happened to see a creek in her dreams, and there in her dream, she met a Horned Serpent.

Isolt followed the route she'd taken in her dream and found the Horned Serpent! Isolt was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, so she could communicate easily with it and became friends with it over the years.

Horned Serpents are said to possess prophetic abilities to a certain extent, as the Horned Serpent was able to tell Isolt (in a cryptic way) that her family would be doomed without its help, and that really turned out to be the case.

This is the reason why Dora decided to risk coming this far, and the reason why she still hasn't run away after seeing the Horned Serpent. For one reason or another, Dora believes in some of the fairy tales. And this one is actually turning out to be true so far.

Dora kept her distance and the Horned Serpent rose its gigantic body out of the water. She was still invisible, she experimentally flew sideways and back and forth.

The cerulean blue eyes follow her, removing any doubts that it could see her.

"Jealous Chris save me," she muttered.

She would have run away by now, but one thing stop her from doing so. Its beautiful cerulean-blue eyes, which could look very intimidating in other circumstances, were looked at looking at her with a lot... distress?

It was looking at her with a pleading expression.

Dora removed her disillusionment, and she could have sworn she saw its eyes brighten and it started to try to say something to her in its own language.

But, the melodious sounds which were coming out of its mouth fell deaf on her ears since, unlike Isolt Sayre, she couldn't understand it. But she could still pick up the hints of plea mixed in it.

And in the next moment, Dora saw it levitating a small stone of Orange-blue color out of the creek. The stone looked quite small in contrast with the giant size of the Horned Serpent.

The stone slowly levitated towards her, and as she got a better view of it, she gasped in shock.

"It's an egg?!"

Dora didn't know what was going on now. What was she supposed to do with the egg? Eat it? She'd just recently turned vegan.

The snake was saying something to her, but again, Dora couldn't understand it. But as the egg got closer to her, Dora realized that the egg looked clearly deformed than how a normal egg should look. The shape was a bit off and the surface was even with slight wrinkles.

"Oh..." Dora felt a burst of sympathy for the poor creature inside the egg. And at the same time, she finally understood a little of the Horned Serpent might be requesting her.

Dora received the egg slowly and cautiously as she kept eye contact with the Horned Serpent. The Serpent most likely wanted her to somehow save this egg. Dora would have been glad to be of help, but she has no idea how. The Horned Serpent was still looking at her in anticipation

"Do you want me to heal it?" She asked, totally thinking that it won't even understand her, but to her surprise, the snake nodded its head!

'Wow! It can actually understand me!'

Dora wanted to talk some more with it, but now that she had an egg to heal, so Dora began to think of solutions.

Does she know any spell?

'No, I can't remember any that might help.' she thought to herself.

Does she know some kind of Potion that might help?

Nope.

But then she suddenly remembered it! The answer was so simple that she couldn't help from swearing.

'Morgana's g-strings! I'm an idiot!'

As Chris had proclaimed, Dora could curse like a sailor. She also had a vivid imagination and creativity. Though Dora herself wasn't aware of that, and Chris wasn't going to be the one telling her that, considering the fact that he gets a new stock of colorful insults to use others every time she starts cursing.

Dora, not even focusing on the cursing, quickly dug into her pocket and took out a precious-looking stone and a piece of gold sheet from it. If someone observed closely, they'd find lots of small runes etched into them.

These, of course, came with the things Chris had given her. There were a lot more stored in her pouch which only she can open.

Dora had almost had a heart attack when she saw when in the bad which Chris had given and she only agreed to keep them when Chris convinced her to just keep them temporarily, absorb the magic stored in them and return them all back when she comes back.

These things were really wonderful. They had some kind of magic stored in them which made them really good for healing, along with a variety of other uses. The results of absorbing magic from them were already showing on her, and Chris is going to be pleasantly surprised when he meets her the next time.

"Let's try this." She murmured. She put the stone back in her pocket and wrapped the gold sheet around the egg. Still not satisfied, she took out some more from her pouch and she wrapped them as well while keeping an eye on the Horned Serpent, just in case it flips out on something she did and attacks her.

But to her relief, the Horned Serpent looked truly happy. Its intelligent eyes showed that it was content with the way things were going.

After wrapping it up in the golden sheets, Dora cautiously levitated the egg back to Horned Serpent, deciding that she'd either come back for the gold sheet or buy more for Chris and make up for it in other ways. Chris had told her to use it while alone and to try not to let anyone know about them, and if they know it, they should know it in a way both of them don't get into trouble for it. It seems that both of them aren't going to get into trouble for this one, right?

And his final words on the matter were, 'no matter what, prioritize safety over everything.' Dora supposed that the snake might have even eaten her if she couldn't save its child, right? So it should be alright.

While she was thinking this, the Horned Serpent unexpectedly shook its head and, with a great look of unwillingness, longing, and love on its face as it looked towards the egg, it slowly levitated it back towards Dora.

"Huh?" Dora was surprised. "Why?" She asked, but she couldn't understand what it said to her in reply. Though, could definitely see the tears that were rolling down its beautiful blue eyes.

In actuality, the Horned Serpent didn't have 'perfect' foresight, but with its gift of Prophecy, it had seen that its child would live the happiest life if it went with the girl who was flying on the stick.

Thus, with extreme reluctance, for the happiness of her child, the Serpent decided to let the child go.

"...??..."

Dora was stunned for a few moments, not quite comprehending what was happening, but what she was thinking must be too good to be true, right?

"I...Can I...keep it?"

The snake nodded its gigantic head, its tears still overflowing.

Dora clenched her fist tightly as she recalled all the memories of Chris with Nyxie. She can have a pet too?!

She was definitely overjoyed. But, she looked at the Horned and said, "I will care good care of it and visit regularly," she promised solemnly.

Dora then slowly started going away still throwing backward glances.

...

Once she was gone, the hissing sounds started coming from all over the place and the wards around the place became active once again. Soon, a dozen of snakes emerged from all over the place and started consoling the Horned Snake.

They had all hidden themselves so that Dora doesn't get scared after seeing all of them.

$"Are you really sure it was for the best?"$ Asked a three-headed snake to the Horned Serpent. Its size was much smaller in comparison to the Horned Serpent. It was a Runespoor. (XXXX)

The Horned Serpent nodded her head, still very sad, $"It was for the best. They wouldn't have survived long if they'd stayed with us,"$ said the intelligent Horned Serpent, and the Runespoor somehow did a shrug without any shoulders.

$"Whatever. She had better come back from time to time."$ it muttered.

$"She will come," smiled the Horned Serpent, "with the company."$ After saying that, the Horned Serpent flew into the air.

$"Where are you going?"$

"To make sure she leaves the forest safety."$ answer the Horned Serpent before it disappeared from sight.

***

Dora was flying through the forest with a great deal of glee.

"I can't believe it-I can't believe it-I can't believe it-"

She kept muttering in a daze. But, she had to believe it.

'I can't wait to tell Chris!' She thought excitedly.

'Maybe I should tell him personally. After all, my training is going to be over soon,' she mused. Due to Chris's help in making her OP beforehand and her regular absorption of pure magic, and her extreme hard work, Dora's training was going to be over very soon. The fastest in a very long time of Auror training history.

While she was flying around in glee, due to the wind rush and her excitement, she couldn't notice the fact that a Dragon-like creature having feathered wings was catching up with her silently.

Currently, it was flying right behind her!

In her excitement, this girl had even forgotten to reapply the concealment spells!

Finish training early? If moody learned about this negligence of hers, he might delay her graduation for about three more years!

The Snallygaster was coming!

*****