Patrolling Ⅶ

With Bane sulking angrily and clutching his rapidly bruising ribcage, Magorian deferentially bows and says, "My apologies, Guardian. Bane's remarks were impetuous, but he has a good heart."

Nadira turns her vibrant serpent eyes towards Magorian causing the centaur and surrounding centaurs to shuffle in unease. "You would do well to educate your herd member, Chief. I shan't be so kind next time," Nadira warned with something dangerous visible in her eyes. She may be young, but she was still a Great Horned Serpent.

Turning her head back to face the Giantess, Nadira slithers off Rowan's shoulders and crawls through the air until she is matching the gaze of Fridwulfa. "I have made my decision," Nadira loudly announced. "The Giantess may reside in these lands only until the war is over, after which she will depart with her mate, and as for the child-."

The centaur's frown, but gruelingly accept as the Giants will depart from their lands even if that may take. However, any joy they might have felt at that announcement is quickly destroyed by the guardian's following words. "The child's fate is intertwined with these lands; I can sense it. He and his mate, and their children and their mates may reside in these lands forevermore. So, I have spoken, and so it shall come to be."

"Guardian that is utterly ludicrous!" Bane roared in fury as Magorian stared at his herd member in horror. Before Magorian can plead for lenience a white blur is seen as the serpent figure of Nadira coils around Bane, before plunging her fangs into Bane's throat and tearing it wide open. There is a sickening choking sound from Bane, who quickly bleeds out.

The centaurs clutch their bows and resisted the urge to flinch. They had resided in the Forbidden Forest ever since birth, and they were not strangers to loss and the death of comrades on the hunt. But this was a forceful reminder of their place in the forest. The Guardian was bound to protect them and their land, but they in turn were bound to obey the Guardian. And defectors had no place within the confines of the Guardian's watch.

Rowan keeps her face impassive as she resisted the urge to flinch at seeing the blood drip down Bane's throat. This was the reason, why she had never accepted the Basilisk egg. A sentient creature was capable of thought, and who is to say that such a creature would never turn on her? And especially such a dangerous one.

Also, one of the few reasons, why Rowan trusted Nadira was that Nadira was bound to Hogwarts and the lands around. The second was that Nadira had been entrusted to her by another, but never to be bound as master and familiar. And lastly, because she bound Nadira as the Guardian much like the founders she possessed some measure of control of Nadira. If worst came to shove, Rowan would be at least able to flee and survive by nevermore setting foot in Hogwarts and the nearby lands surrounding the castle.

"Acromantulas," Nadira suddenly said pulling Rowan out of her thoughts. Nadira licked her fangs clean, before slithering onto the ground and allowing the drained corpse of Bane to fall onto the ground. The acromantulas who had trying to sneakily creep away with their cargo freeze as they sheepishly turn around and try to blink their eight eyes innocently at the Guardian.

"The battle is over, and the issue has been resolved," Nadira hissed. "Release the centaurs."

The Acromantulas click their pincers in annoyance but do as they are told. With one sharp, slash, they open the cocoons they had been dragging away releasing gasping centaurs onto the ground. The acromantulas click their pincers loudly as if to say, "Satisfied? May we depart, now?"

Nadira nods her head at them and the Acromantulas crossly creep away sending the centaurs dark looks, before disappearing into the dark, dense foliage of the Forbidden Forest. Satisfied that the Acromantulas are gone, she returns her bright serpent gaze towards the centaurs causing more than one member of the herd to stiffen. There was something vividly disturbing to be gazed at by such bright, glowing serpent eyes especially ones that had possessed an intelligent gleam to them.

The lips of Magorian pressed tightly together until they are a sickly violet. Gathering his courage, he breaks the tense situation. "May the herd and I depart as well, Guardian?"

Nadira does not reply as she slithers closer to the figure of Firenze and peers intently at him. The figure of Ronan steps forward and pleads, "Guardian, please forgive my speaking out, but Firenze is merely a colt. Please allow us to take him, and we will punish him according to our laws."

Nadira's tongue flickers as if in a snort, before crawling into the air lazily. Floating mid-air, Nadira turns to gaze at the chief of the centaurs, Magorian. "His name is Firenze?"

Magorian sends a warning glance at the figure of Ronan to remain silent as Magorian answers, "Yes, Guardian. That is the disobedient colt's name."

"The colt sees true," Nadira announced with great relish as a wave of astonished murmurs sweep through the herd of centaurs. The centaurs were all seers to an extent and only believed in the power of the stars and the cosmos. And those that for true read the heavens were those that ranked the highest in their tribe, the Chief and the Shaman. But the Shaman was old and had yet to choose a successor.

Nadira's words had been said with such finality that even Magorian would be able to naysay that which had been spoken much less one of the other centaurs. Floating gently to the eye level of Firenze, Nadira snorts and says, "You are the only other being whom I have ever seen with such eyes as myself."

A slow and easy grin appears on Firenze's face. "It was in the written in the stars that we would meet, and so it has come to be, Guardian."

Nadira snorts, before rapidly opening her mouth and biting the shoulder of the young centaur. The centaurs gasp in unison expecting a bloodbath, but to their surprise, Nadira removes her head and there is nary a trace of blood on Firenze's shoulders except for four glowing fang marks that appear like thin rune-like lines that resembled the starry night sky. It was the mark of a true seer, the mark of the next Shaman.