Skinwalkers

A few days later.

Irma and Gaude both fell to their butts when they landed.

"What was that?", Irma exclaimed.

Gaude, currently wearing the body of Charles Wywin, while Laly was wearing his looks, explained: "That was a portkey. A special device for long-distance high-speed travel. Welcome to Mexico!"

"So, what, that tribe you told me about earlier is living in this town here?", Irma asked, her eyes squinted with suspicion.

"No, not at all. See the highlands over there?", Gaude pointed at what looked like a colossal island of green in a sea of even more green.

"Yes?", Irma asked, her enthusiasm somewhat reduced.

"That's where they were seen a few years ago. Let's just hope that they're not a nomadic tribe. Now, check your socks and laces, both of you, I don't want to hear whining about blisters and whatnot."

Naturally, Gaude brought plenty of potions and band-aids for all sorts emergencies with him, but it was better to have and not need. Truthfully, there was even enough food and water for a month in his Mokeskin pouch, a small gas stove and plenty of propane, not to mention a six-person tent with all that was necessary to travel in a civilized manner.

Even if all that wasn't enough, he still had water filters and naturally his favorite substance for paralyzing targets, Draught of the Living Death. Since he also carried its antidote, it would be safe to use for hunting purposes.

After all of them had made sure that their socks were dry, intact and without any folds that would rub their feet the wrong way, they tightened their laces and set off. Obviously, Gaude could've had Laly apparate them straight to the mountain, but he figured that a little camping trip would do good to Irma and would allow him to digest everything he had learned from his various tutors.

Among other things, Gaude had brought the trunk with him, disguised as a large backpack that 'Charles' was carrying on his back. That was where Gaude intended to get his Runecarving practice in – after all, he had discovered that there was in fact a room which was very suitable for practicing skills with potential for causing accidental explosion.

After he had discovered the fact, the wallet in his heart had bled for a few days for the Galleons he had wasted warding another room on the outside. Only the thought that he couldn't just show Linda that he had a trunk with a massive inner space and a very well-equipped house formerly owned by a self-proclaimed demon hunter had given him some solace.

As they made their way through the thicket, Gaude occasionally using Charles' illusory hand to swing a machete to cut a path for them, they were suddenly stopped by the sound of small trees breaking and the sound of stomping footsteps.

"You two, stay right here. I'll go check it out.", Gaude said.

Gaude levitated to the top of the illusory body and floated above the tall grass, not disturbing it in the slightest. Soon, he found the cause of the commotion – there were three bison-like animals at least twice as big as the biggest breed of bull and with horns that would make any Viking a proud owner. The animals had a shiny golden fur and they were proudly displaying bulging muscles that threatened to tear through their skin at any moment.

After a moment of hesitation and a lot of cross-checking, he managed to identify the animals as Re'em, one of the few species of magical creatures still missing from his ingredient zoo. Gaude would have to call in his capturing team the moment they returned with that flock of Phoenixes he had ordered – the fiery birds tended to get left behind during Apparition, forcing the team to take the long way around on their broomsticks.

Gaude decided to try something with the animals, since it would be a shame to leave them wandering. So far, he had managed to control human children, and even Irma to some degree, now it was time for animal experimentation. Yes, the order was a bit wrong, but it had worked out well in the end. At least Gaude hoped he hadn't left his first subjects of mind control with permanent brain damage.

Gaude looked into the eyes of the leader of the miniature herd and sent a thread of magic in. There wasn't much resistance on the way. There wasn't much of anything, really, just a faint desire to keep moving and a slight thirst.

He then tried to make the animal go downwind from him. It was surprisingly easy. Then he suppressed the feelings of anxiety in it and reinforced the feelings of safety. Once he was done with the leader of the three, he cycled through the rest, then, as a while had already passed, he started reinforcing a feeling of familiarity in the animals.

After a while, the Re'em came voluntarily to greet and sniff him. Then he sat on the leading animal's, a Re'em bull's back and suppressed the feeling of displeasure that had appeared in its mind. He scratched the beast's neck and amplified the pleasant sensation.

Once again, he cycled through all three of the animals until none of them minded him sitting on their backs at all, even when he used telekinesis to produce the sensation of an adult sitting on their backs.

Once he was done conditioning the animals, he guided the leader to Irma and masked Laly.

From afar, he shouted: "The two of you, I've fetched us a ride. They might look a bit imposing, but they have a big heart."

A minute later, the calmly walking animals that could easily compete with an adolescent elephant in strength came to a stop in front of the two. 'Gaude' didn't have a single twitch in 'his' facial expression while Irma was just gaping at the animals' majestic figures. Then, a gleam appeared in her eyes. Gaude hoped it wasn't the infamous Werewolf's hunger.

"Close your mouth or your heart will get cold. Get on and let's move."

Irma was woken from her reverie. She just been stunned that such a creature actually existed and wasn't hunted to extinction for the pelt alone. It was either that or the fact that 'Charles' had somehow managed to tame three of them in less than half an hour and turned them into mounts.

The two Re'em kneeled, making it easy for Irma and 'Gaude' to get on. Irma sat right behind the cow's shoulders while 'Gaude' sat on the calf's neck, holding on to the tips of its horns that were still thin enough to get a firm grasp on. Irma simply shoved her fingers into the cow's fur and grabbed hold of it like that.

The animals got back up and they started moving forward, the pace much faster than it had been before, when Gaude still had to use a machete to clear a path.

By sunset, they had reached the forest at the foot of the highlands. Gaude took out a few washbasins and poured some water into them.

"Where did you just take those out from?", Irma asked, noticing that there was just no way those washbasins could've fit inside Gaude's backpack or anywhere else.

Gaude (once again, Charles) made a secretive face, looked around as if making sure that there was nobody listening and then whispered: "Don't tell anyone, but I can do magic!"

"I'm not a child anymore, I'm not going to believe that!", Irma protested with a cute little pout.

"You can believe what you want.", 'Charles' said while pulling out more five-gallon water bottles seemingly out of nowhere, then poured the water into the basins.

The Re'em seemed to understand what it was for as they quickly went and drank it all. The process of refilling and emptying the washbasins repeated for a while before the animals seemed to be satisfied and went to graze nearby.

The look of puzzlement in Irma's eyes only deepened, not willing to believe in the existence of magic even as it was blatantly displayed right in front of her eyes.

Finally, Gaude pulled a tent set out of the Mokeskin pouch and cast 'Erecto' on it. The supports unpacked themselves, took their rightful positions and the tent started rising by itself. Then the guy ropes pulled themselves taut and the pegs slammed into the ground with thuds. That was the last drop in Irma's patience and it all boiled over.

"Seriously, just show me how you do it!", she demanded.

"I told you, it's magic.", Gaude explained with an 'it's obvious' face.

"There's no such thing as magic!", Irma didn't give up.

"Right, right. And my hand is not glowing right now.", Gaude said as he channeled a 'Lumos' through his entire palm, the result easily overtaking the last rays of sunlight that were struggling to push their way through the thick canopy.

Irma was quick to find a rational explanation: "I'm not sure how you did the thing with the tent, but right now, you must have a flashlight hidden in your sleeve."

As Gaude had been distracting Irma with simple parlor tricks, his throwing stars had been quickly and silently slicing through a dead tree that was reasonably close to their campsite. After that, Laly had collected the firewood and piled it up a bit of a distance away from the preoccupied Irma's back.

"Hmm, I believe a camping trip isn't complete without a campfire, don't you agree, kids?", Gaude asked.

"So, we should start gathering the firewood?", Irma asked, thinking that 'Charles' had just decided to change the topic and get some free time to prepare a few more tricks in secret. Irma didn't mind a little magic show, it was fun, but for the old man to not want to share his tricks, he was too stingy.

"No need, the firewood has already gathered itself.", Gaude said, pointing his finger at the pile of logs.

Irma looked at the ignition-ready campfire with a disbelieving expression. That old man was just too strange. Not only did he get them some wild-looking animals to ride, but now he was setting up tents and building campfires with the wave of his hand.

"Infiro!", Gaude said, his finger still pointed at the campfire. Suddenly the logs burst into fire, lighting up the area.

Something in Irma's head snapped. She said with a blank face: "Fine. Whatever. Magic is real. Science is wrong. The world doesn't make sense. Do you have marshmallows?"

'Charles' simply raised his hand to his hip and took out a pack of marshmallows and three skewers. "Here you go.", he said, handing a skewer to Irma and opening the pack with a perfectly silent severing charm.

For a while, they simply grilled marshmallows in silence. Suddenly, something seemed to click in Irma's memory as she turned to 'Gaude' with a very pleasant smile. Most people would be fooled by it if they didn't look at her eyes.

Her eyes looked like bottomless pits filled with ferocious beasts when she asked in a voice that dripped honey: "Gaude, I had a dream once where we went to the Leaky Cauldron. Behind it was a wall that wasn't a wall and through it, we went to a street where strange people and even stranger creatures worked in shops and a bank. Tell me, was that really a dream?"

Laly, the one that was wearing the illusion of Gaude, felt a bone-chilling sensation, as if being instantly killed was the least of her worries at that moment. However, as a dutiful house elf, she couldn't ask for help from her master in order not to betray the identity change they both had gone through. As a proper house elf, it was her duty to even take a fate worse than death in her master's place if she could. There was no greater honor to a house elf.

Laly suddenly felt her master's presence strengthen in her mind and thought that these must've been her final moments, the bond being strengthened by her sacrifice, but suddenly she felt as if she heard a faint voice of her master inside her head, telling her: "Tell her: it was not a dream. It was all real."

'Gaude' then said: "It was real. It was not all dream."

An icy flame seemed to flicker in Irma's eyes, promising a thousand years in a freezing hell to those her gaze stopped on as she looked at 'Gaude'. "So, you're telling me you dragged me to a street full of magical people who could've done who knows what to us and we wouldn't have even known what happened?"

By that point, Laly was whimpering in her mind: 'Master! Save me, please!'

Gaude, however, was thanking his foresight for choosing the identity of Charles Vywin instead of playing the role of himself. His position was so much better. It was definitely a good idea to have a house elf nearby.

Suddenly, Gaude felt spikes of ice stabbing between each of his vertebrae, going all the way up to his neck. He was barely able to turn his head to meet Irma's gaze.

Gaude could hear the Re'em rushing away into the woods in a hurry, apparently sensing the looming danger.

Irma spoke in her sweet tone: "And you, mister. There was half a year, an entire six months before you showed up! At least you should've taken responsibility of Gaude before he dragged somebody else into such a dangerous place! I thought we would get eaten three times in that bank, and we almost fell to our death twice!"

"Um, actually, there's one more thing.", Gaude said in a small voice. There wasn't much left of his grandfatherly tone, it had been completely shattered by the icy atmosphere.

By that time, Irma was standing up with her hands on her hips, staring Gaude down as if it was full moon and she had already turned.

"And what's that, exactly?"

At that moment, Gaude sent Laly a mental command to dispel the illusion on him.

"Actually, Charles Vywin never existed. I made him up because children, especially those that look like they're about six aren't allowed to conduct business or live by themselves. Since I'm on a streak here, might as well get that one off my chest as well."

"What?", Irma shouted.

"Then who's that?"

"That's my house elf, a subordinate of sorts. Bound to my House by magic and so on. Laly, show your face."

Irma stared at 'Gaude' as 'his' face morphed into a creature with large bulbous eyes, long nose and big flappy ears.

"What the hell is this thing?", Irma asked again.

"That's a house elf. The best-looking one I found on the market, and the youngest in my employment. She's also my personal assistant of sorts."

Slowly, the gears in Irma's mind kept turning.

"So, you got money from somewhere, dragged me to a wizarding bank, whatever that is, dragged me through hordes of dangerous looking creatures and then took me to a house inside a chest that looked like it was haunted?

Not only that, you, as a child of no more than ten months of age, went on to buy yourself a house, adopted yourself, apparently created a very suspicious-looking organization and now dragged me to the middle of the rainforest with a creature that is about as big as you as the only security. Did I get everything?

Do you even realize how insane that sounds?"

"It's fine, I have an entire squad of house elves on standby. They're a lot stronger than they look, as their main method of doing anything is by magic. Laly, I need a demonstration. Blow that tree away."

Gaude pointed at a tree that was at least seven feet thick. Laly seemed to concentrated for a bit. Then she begun thrusting her hands forward while sparks flew out, hitting the tree's trunk in various spots. The tree shattered into fragments suitable for another campfire even before hitting the ground.

Laly then bowed towards Gaude, as if signaling that she had completed her task.

"So, just because you have a personal wood chipper, you think we're safe? Fine, let's say it's enough when you couple it with those three beasts.

That still leaves the matter of you going away from the orphanage to live on your own. Were we not enough for you?"

"Well, first of all, I'm not living alone. Mandy is living with me. She's legally an adult, I think. I never really found out how old she is.

Do you really think I could practice magic in the orphanage without being shunned and called a freak or something along those lines, no offense to you or Adelaide. There was also the matter of me having to give up tissue samples on a weekly basis because my growth had attracted the attention of a certain Major Hall, a man that I managed to deal with only recently."

"Who's Mandy?"

"She's a… well, she's a vampire I kind of rescued. She's cute, so I adopted her as my little sister."

"Hold on a moment, you're telling me that you're not living alone, but instead living with a vampire as the only other person in the house? Has your mind's development not caught up to your body?"

"There's no need to worry about the development of my mind. For all I know, somebody pulled it from another world, from my adult body, and it re-awakened a few months after this body was born, so technically, my mind is ahead of my body.

I've also got a few businesses running with good profit margins. A person with a toddler's mind would not be able to do something like that."

Irma appeared to need a while to think after Gaude's self-justifications.

"Still, I won't let you live in the same house with a vampire. From now on, I'm moving in, no matter what you say or think about it."

Gaude decided to not remind her that she was a werewolf herself. It would most likely only cause more shouting, and his ears were hurting as it was.

"Okay, I have a spare bedroom, and if you need, I can ask the elves add more rooms to the house." It was at that moment that Gaude solemnly vowed in his heart to never reveal to Irma his nightly raids on organized crime that were the source of the majority of his starting capital for the various business ventures.

"That's a good attitude.", Irma said, her eyes suddenly full of sunshine, her smile bright and genuine, the previous absolute zero nowhere to be seen. Somehow, that swift change felt even more jarring to Gaude. She would truly grow up to be a scary woman.

Gaude took out a bucket of marinated meat and skewered it for all three of them onto clean skewers. He felt that he had to tiptoe a bit and try to regain Irma's favor.

After they had finished dinner, they slept in the tent, not hearing the roars and stomps that came from the outside, perfectly oblivious that an animal life had been extinguished.

In the next morning, it took Gaude half an hour before he found their 'mounts'. On the way, he also found a black bear that looked like it had met a miserable end under the hooves of two tons of pure muscle.

Gaude decided to not mention the fact that the Re'em weren't as kind-hearted as they seemed at a first glance, at least towards bears. He simply smeared a bit of Essence of Dittany onto the shallow scratches on the bull's neck and lead the animals back to the camp.

After the camp had been packed into Gaude's Mokeskin pouch, they continued their journey, making it to a plateau in the highlands by noon. Gaude spotted smoke and they changed course to check it out.

A while after sunset, they could finally hear singing and saw the flicker of a fire through the trees. As they reached closer, the singing quieted down but the fire remained. Suddenly, there was a pack of wolves on their path, staring at them silently.

Gaude sent a mental command to all the Re'em to stop. He then probed the mind of one of the wolves and was quite surprised – not only did the wolf have a strong resistance to Legilimency, once he did wiggle his way in, he discovered that this wolf had a lot of memories of looking at things from a human's perspective – in other words, he had found those he had been looking for. Hopefully, they weren't just a pack of wolf animagi.

Not understanding a word of the language this person seemed to speak on a daily basis, Gaude tried sending emotions and more generic ideas instead. He sent over something that he hoped would translate into: 'greetings, we come in peace'.

The message may have been somewhat distorted by the three mountains of muscle they were riding, but the wolves simply looked at each other for a while, seemingly engaging in some form of silent communication before clearing the path.

The natives didn't seem to care about Gaude's age at all. It seemed that in their eyes, anyone that could communicate with animals to that degree was an equal.

###

After a while of struggling to communicate what they wanted, the tribesmen understood that Irma was infected with the Werewolf curse and would turn the coming full moon. A man heavily decorated with the claws and teeth of local predators that seemed to be the chief brought out a silver plate with carvings of a man on the left, a Werewolf in the middle and a wolf on the right. There were also strange symbols carved into the silver that Gaude didn't recognize, a writing system different from Ancient Runes.

Then, with drawings, the tribesmen explained that there were two beings inside Irma, the wolf and herself. They explained that Irma should become a friend with her wolf, that way the Werewolf would not be aggressive. The Werewolf would only become aggressive because it lacked the connection to the human part and would crave for it, driving it to hunt down and devour humans.

The natives even instructed her with examples that she shouldn't chase after the wolf, but instead have the wolf come to her of its own accord.

Finally, it seemed that the instructions had ended as the chief took out a bundle of herbs and grasses, lit it in the campfire and placed it onto the silver plate in front of Irma so that the gentle wind was blowing the smoke into her face.

Irma could've sworn she saw the smoke starting to take the shape of a wolf before she suddenly found herself in the forest outside the village, surrounded by mossy trees. She saw a bushy gray tail disappear behind a tree.

She decided to sit down on a fallen trunk and wait to see what the wolf would do. After a while, she saw a black snout peeking out, opposite from where the wolf had disappeared to before.

She looked at the snout and it was quickly pulled back behind the tree. This reminded Irma of Daniela, a very shy girl they had in the orphanage.

She decided to lure the wolf to herself with curiosity. She started quietly humming a song she'd sung to the children to calm them. Then she picked up a twig and started drawing a picture she imagined the wolf to look like on the ground.

After a while, Irma heard faint, almost inaudible footsteps closing in on her. She didn't look yet, knowing it would only startle the animal.

Instead, she spoke softly: "Hello. I am Irma. Would you like to be my friend?"

Even without looking, Irma felt like the wolf was slightly wagging its tail.

"Why don't you come and sit down?", Irma said while extending her hand. The wolf came closer by a few more steps until Irma felt a damp snout pressing itself in her palm and sniffing her.

She started carefully moving her hand towards the top of the wolf's head. The wolf pulled back a little and she slowed down. Finally, she gently touched the back of the wolf's head.

"There we go, it's not so scary.", she said, as if trying to pacify a child.

She gave the animal's fur a gentle stroke. An uncertainty she'd been feeling began to fade.

She looked towards the wolf carefully. The wolf stiffened for a moment but stood still. She continued carefully stroking its head.

The wolf had a black snout, a white diamond shape on its forehead, gray body and tail and black socks on its paws.

The wolf's eyes were deep blue, different from her own brown ones.

"You're a beauty, aren't you?", Irma mused. "I'm glad you're my wolf."

Suddenly, Irma felt slight happiness coming from the animal.

Then she heard popping and cracking sounds and the wolf started growing bigger. She fear from the wolf. And pain. A lot of pain.

"What's happening to you?", she asked with only concern in her face.

Soon, the wolf looked like a hybrid between man and beast. Then the memory hit her. She had been attacked by something similar. For a moment she felt scared of what was standing in front of her.

The beast started growling at her. Suddenly, she felt hatred and rage from the wolf.

Then she remembered. This one was not the one that attacked her. This one was her own wolf, a part of herself, just as much as she was a part of it. By fearing it, she would fear herself, and in turn make the wolf fearful of her. This was not what the natives instructed her to do, so she forcefully calmed herself.

"It's okay, you're not him. You're my wolf. You're a part of me, and I'm a part of you."

The now Werewolf seemed to calm down slightly.

"You look powerful. Will you lend me your strength so that we can find and take down the one that hurt me and so many others?"

The Werewolf simply nodded.

###

Gaude had been observing the first session, to knock Irma out if something went wrong. At first, her face started twitching a little, then the rest of her body.

Gaude hadn't thought that there would be a visible reaction at all. He expected it to look more like a person meditating instead.

The natives around let out sounds of amazement and awe. They seemed to agree with Gaude on the matter that she shouldn't have a reaction as strong as that.

However, when Gaude tried asking them about it, he was slowly and painstakingly made aware that even the most talented Skinwalkers needed weeks, if not months of meditation to even meet their wolf.

It seemed that Irma was either insanely talented or she knew something the natives never did.

A few moments later, she opened her eyes. One of them was deep blue. Gasps came from the natives that had gathered in front of her.

Suddenly, the natives started dancing a strange dance and singing, as if to celebrate something. The chief painstakingly explained that Irma had formed a bond with her wolf and completed the first step on the path of becoming a true Skinwalker.

"Irma, I hope you don't mind having eyes of different color.", Gaude said.

"What do you mean, Gaude? And what's with your eyes?", she asked, a quizzical look on her face. She had only now noticed his golden irises and slit-like pupils.

Gaude simply took out a mirror from his pouch, causing the natives to jump back at the sudden appearance of an object. He handed it to Irma.

Then he said jokingly: "I'm actually a Witcher, haven't you heard of them?"

"A what?"

"Nah, I'm just kidding. It has to do with my family's heritage. I'm a part-Dragon."

"Are you joking again?"

"Nope, it's true. I did a ritual and everything. Broke the room I did it in, which is a shame, but it worked out in the end."

Irma just rolled her eyes, thinking that Gaude didn't want to reveal the truth to her some reason, but since it seemed like a minor matter compared to what she had learned earlier, she decided to let it go for the time being. There were more important things to consider first.

"What happened to me?", she asked after she had taken a look at her own face.

Gaude had a theory about it, so he asked to confirm: "Tell me, did your wolf have blue eyes?"

"Yes, but what does that…", she started, but then realization caught up to her.

"Wait, so you're eyes are really because you're a part-dragon? Dragons are real?"

"Exactly. You seem to have formed a very strong connection with your wolf and a few of the traits seem to have transferred to you. I recommend you try to connect with your wolf on your own each day before sleep. I'll try to swindle the right to make our own ritual plate and the composition of that smoking herb mix out of those natives. As long as they don't ask for my newfound cattle, we should be able to come to an agreement.

And yes, Dragons are real, and so are a whole host of other magical creatures. I have my own private zoo of them, and this cattle is one of the species missing from it.

As the natives here say, scars on one's face, chest and arms are not something to be ashamed of. Each of them are a medal of honor, a sign that you've faced your battles bravely."

"Honor and bravery won't make me more attractive. I don't think there's a man in England that would share their thoughts on the matter, and I'd rather live alone than have one of the natives here for my husband.", she replied solemnly.

"To be honest, while I do think the scars are a sign of bravery, I agree that it would make life easier for you to be without them. I'll check in with the eggheads in the lab and ask them to look into scar removal."

"You'd better. It would be a step in the right direction if you want me to forgive you for all the stunts you've pulled."

Gaude managed to trade a few pounds of salt for the permission to make his own plate, but the natives were clever enough to ask for a continued trade instead of just selling the recipe for the smoke herbs. Since that was the case, Gaude decided to set up a two-way Portkey connection with the place. He suspected that he would be visiting that village of skin tents a lot in the next few months. He was not willing to respond to their goodwill with stealing their secret with Legilimency. The thought just rubbed him the wrong way.

Once they had finished dealing with the natives and spent the remainder of the night in their village, Gaude discovered that there was still a day left of the weekend, he decided that it was as good a time as any to enjoy some more of the fresh air.

They continued their trip westwards until they stumbled upon a structure that was smothered by vines growing on top of even more vines. It seemed to be a piece of Aztec architecture, or perhaps something from an even earlier era. Gaude decided to go explore it with Irma.

"Hey, Irma, let's go take a look. Just keep your eyes open for snakes, colorful frogs, scorpions, black and red spiders and amber spiders. Oh, and did I mention spiders?"

"Fine, mister archeologist. At least I can tag along and make sure you don't get yourself hurt while you're running around, I don't think I'd be able to stop you, as the mere mortal I am."

Even if they did stumble upon a black widow, Gaude had a portkey to a local larger town that would presumably have antidote stocked in the hospital. He just hoped he'd not need it.

As Gaude and Irma made their way deeper into the structure, they felt the ambient wind picking up, even though it shouldn't as there was a steep cliff right behind the structure. Still, both of them welcomed the breeze, a nice change of pace from the stagnant heat.

They climbed the steps of a pyramid and reached a small mossy pedestal. There seemed to be something under a layer of moss and Gaude decided to take a closer look. As he wiped the moss to the side, he discovered a conch.

The conch was carved with vortices and spirals. The conch didn't look like it had been under the moss longer than a few days, but that was just not possible. The tip of the conch was cut off and drilled, as if it was meant to be blown like an instrument.

Gaude raised the conch up and tried blowing it. The sound wasn't impressive at all, but the wind around them picked up by a lot. Neither of them paid it any mind, however, not connecting the two.

Suddenly, the pedestal that the conch had been on, jumped upwards with a clack, as if it had been stuck and didn't perform its purpose properly before.

Gaude looked at Irma and said: "I think we should run, now!"

They rushed down the steps as fast as they could, then across the flat plaza in front of the pyramid when suddenly some areas of the plaza disappeared into holes. If one looked carefully, they could see that the panels were still hanging on hinges, but neither Gaude nor Irma had any time to look carefully. For all they knew, they had just triggered a death trap.

Suddenly, Gaude noticed something and shouted: "To the side! Run to the side! The sides are not opening up!"

Within a few seconds, they had exploded the potential of their leg muscles and made their way to the side of the plaza. They stood there, panting. They would've sat down or even lied down to rest, but both of them were wary of any creatures that they might royally piss off by sitting on them.

"That was fun! Want to go again?", Gaude shouted breathlessly.

Irma just looked at him while still panting.

"Haha, I guess not.", Gaude said.

"You were saying something about having the mind of an adult. I suddenly find that very hard to believe.", Irma spoke after properly catching her breath.

Once they made it back to the Re'em, they had a lunch of tuna salad. Gaude herded the Re'em into the trunk and portkeyed the three back to Gaude's mansion.

"Welcome to my humble abode.", Gaude said.

They were standing in the Atrium. There was a huge House Vywin crest on the marble-tiled floor and four large fireplaces carved with dragons and unicorns, the animals on the crest.

The walls were mostly smooth, without any adornments, except one carving of what looked like a child with a pointer stick staring at a humanoid creature with long fangs, sharp claws and bat-like wings. One of the creature's clawed hands was held against a small circle in front of the child's pointer.

At least, that was Irma's impression of the carving when she saw it. There was a small inscription under the carving, but Irma wasn't able to notice it from her position. The inscription was: 'Death of Bryan Sanguini, true vampire'

"That doesn't look humble at all. How much did it cost you exactly?"

"Well, the elves did all the work, and they're happy as long as they have work to do. I only had to pay for the furniture, because the elves didn't know how to make it. Well, and the food for the elves. Can't have them raiding trash cans."

"Oh, hello! Gaude, you should've told me we'd have guests. I could���ve prepared something!", a pale girl, seemingly no older than ten spoke. She had exited the door to Gaude's room. It seemed that she would soon just move all her belongings there.

"Irma, meet Amanda Vywin. She's the adopted little sister I told you about. Isn't she cute?"

"Amanda, meet Irma Smith. She's a big sister of sorts to me. She's the one that was attacked a while back, by a Werewolf."

The little vampiress bounced away, fear evident on her face.

"Mandy, there's no need to worry. They only turn during the full moon, and I've already taken steps to ensure that she can keep her sanity during that time."

"She's the vampire?", Irma asked in disbelief. "Are you sure she isn't your actual sister?"

"You mean the looks? Well, when I said I adopted her, I meant that I did it through magic, so she has quite a bit of my blood in her. What I mean is, I gave her a potion that made my blood relative." Gaude had to amend his statement halfway, due to the strange look that Irma gave to Amanda.

"Wait, there's a potion to make someone blood-relatives? What else is there a potion for?"

"Well, a lot of things, but there's even more things that there isn't a potion for, unfortunately. However, I have a guy down in the potions lab trying his hardest to remedy that."

Gaude helped Irma settle in and went to stash the Re'em into a habitat that had been waiting for their arrival for months.

The Re'em were an endangered species and one way to avoid their extinction was to make them breed well in a controlled environment. Naturally, that required a bit more than just a single breeding pair, to avoid the negative effects of inbreeding, however, it was a start.

---

A few hours later

Night had arrived over magical and mundane Britain. In the Vywin Manor, everyone was preparing to retire for the night. Gaude, mostly due to the fact that he had put a lot of practice in trying to improve the uniformity of the runes he carved, was the first one to bathe and go to bed.

He was quickly followed by Amanda who snuggled up to him as usual. Irma had been busy inspecting the grounds and finding faults with it, such as the plot being way too close to a steep cliff, but finally took a quick shower and prepared to go to sleep in her own room.

However, she decided to say good night to Gaude first. Yet, as she looked into the room, she saw Gaude and Amanda sleeping next to each other.

Irma found it cute for a moment, but then remembered that the seemingly innocent little girl was a vampire.

There was no way Irma would leave Gaude alone with a blood-sucking creature like that, even if it looked like a cute little girl.

She sneaked into the room, trying not to wake up Gaude. She gently shook Amanda's shoulder to get her attention and whispered: "You get away from Gaude. I'm sure you have a room of your own, go sleep in there."

"I don't want to.", Amanda whispered back.

"You will, or I'll take you there myself."

Amanda didn't even reply, instead she wrapped her arms around Gaude who only shifted into a more comfortable position in his sleep.

'Fine, I'll just have to stay close to keep Gaude safe from her.', Irma thought.

She took a spot on the other side of Gaude, close enough to hopefully feel and be woken up by anything suspicious happening.

When morning came, Gaude's only thought was: 'It's a good thing I got myself a bigger bed.' Still, it didn't help him wrestle himself free from the hold of two pairs of arms. Gaude ended up spending an hour just lying down with his eyes open, contemplating his choices in life, until Irma woke up.

Gaude's meditation lead him to a conclusion that this wasn't so bad. It gave him a sense of belonging, even if his 'family' would be a unique one.