Seram

They didn't get very far before they came across their first magical beast as they cleared the path. It was a large rodent covered in brown and tan feathers that was spooked when it saw them and ran away. "Please tell me your mother didn't have a breeding pair of those a thousand years ago." Nick said pleadingly and Helena looked away awkwardly. "At least they are fairly harmless normally." Helena said reassuringly. Nick didn't not feel very reassured though since that was a colo colo or a Chilean feathered rat. They had a bad habit of draining energy from people making them more and more tired over time if not gotten rid of.-

While not explicitly dangerous that only applies when they are alone as once more than a certain number of the things drained energy from someone in their sleep they may get exhausted to death and like most rats they reproduced very fast. A thousand years was a long time for rats to be left undisturbed on an island so there was no telling how many of the things there were. "Why in merlin's name would you mom think keeping colo colo was a good idea?" Nick asked seriously.-

Helena looked embarrassed "That's kind of my fault." she murmured under her breath but Nick still heard her thanks to his elvish hearing that was more sensitive than a humans. "Yeah , I think I have a pretty good idea what happened now." he said with a teasing grin. "I was a young ignorant girl at one point I'll have you know!" Helena said defensively. "sure sure , but feathered rats? Not even I could have ever imagined you'd find such things cute." Nick teased his long dead relative mercilessly while Olivander watched with an amused expression.-

As they continued top clear out the path they came across a few other magical creatures such as bowtruckles , horned serpents and even snawfus which were large white deer creatures with wooden branches instead of antlers. Thankfully none of these species were that difficult to deal with as they all tended to avoid people. Thankfully none of these species were unknown or particularly rare so Nick wasn't concerned all that much. This changed with the next creature that they found , or to be more specific it found them. It was a creature with the body of a lion with bat like wings the head of a woman and the tail of a scorpion.

It was a manticore that was also huge which made sense considering it was likely over a thousand years old. "Ah , the little mistress has returned it seems and what a handsome little one who accompanies her." the beast speaks in a very human sounding voice. "Seram!" Helena squealed happily and rushed over to the massive manticore to embrace it. "Hah~ How I've missed you my little one." the manticore said with a wide smile that revealed many sharp teeth as it gently draped a hug paw over Helena to return the embrace.-

"As touching as this reunion seems to be can someone explain what's going on?" Nick asked beyond confused why a vicious monster like a manticore was acting all friendly and caring towards a human or rather ghost in this case. Wild manticores were verified and well known man eaters that despite their human level intelligence actively targeted wizards to feast on for their magical energy which was why they had been nearly hunted to extinction. "Seram is the guardian of the island that mother raised alongside me when I was still in infancy. I thought after so long she would have passed away by now." Helena said with tearful eyes.-

Nick could see why she would get so emotional over finding out that this manticore named Seram was still alive. He wasn't surprised that it could live so long considering that much like basilisk manticores had a very long lifespan with the oldest recorded one at seventeen hundred years old according to it. "I'm afraid your concern was quite valid in this case as I have barely been able to survive off the offspring of those two feathered rats of yours and the snawfus but they barely contain enough energy to sustain me." Seram said honestly.-

Helena looked mortified after hearing this "I'm so sorry for never coming but I was rather lost for this whole time." she said fading into her ghostly form. The manticore looked surprised "So you truly have died." it said with a sigh. "After so long I had assumed as such but never did I think you would be a ghost. It seems we both have regrets that force us to linger in this world." Seram said sadly before turning serious and staring at Nick and Olivander with a threatening look.

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