Travels VIII

After lashing out at the Quechua, the Indigenous people of Peru, I had the girl who followed me. Her name was Nuna and no matter what I told her, she wouldn't stop following me. I could do many things to have her stop following me or get away from her, but in my heart, I knew that I couldn't do that. 

She wouldn't be accepted back in her home, as I had just become tribe enemy #1. So eventually I let her follow me. She didn't talk, not at first. She just followed me and when we came to a river, she would bring me water or show me edible nuts and berries. After a week like this, I started to talk to her. She wasn't mute or deaf thankfully, but she would only talk if I asked her a question. 

That was fine with me. I had grown used to being alone and simply observing everything around me and learning. But now that there was someone who followed me every step of the way, I didn't feel so comfortable anymore. I got used to it very fast though. I learned that Nuna knew very little about life outside of the tribe and the rainforest. But she did know a lot about the flora and fauna.

"How old are you?"

"Old? Why should I be old?", she asks me confused. 

"I mean how many years have you lived?"

"What is a 'year'?"

"A name day?"

"Are there days that are called Nuna?"

"No, what I mean is the day that you were born. Was that not celebrated in your tribe?", I ask her. 

"How would I celebrate the day I was born, when I was just born? I was a baby after all."

"*Sigh*"

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We had many such talks. Over time, we grew closer to each other and I came to appreciate her. She was very helpful and supportive of what I did. She also enjoyed watching the magical creatures and finding new plants she didn't know of. So we created a close bond, relatively quickly. Nuna found out that I wasn't a monster or a bad guy ... I was just ... human. 

Eventually, I found myself another pair of Vipertooths which I then teleported to my home. 

Nuna was a pretty young woman. I could tell that she would grow up to be a truly beautiful woman one day. But I wasn't interested. She was just far too young and I didn't even think about it. 

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When I sent the second Vipertooth to my home, she asked me where I sent all the magical creatures when they disappeared. 

"Say Nuna, don't you want to go on and meet a young man and create a family with him? Are you certain that you want to follow this old man around for the next years?", I ask her while pointing at myself. 

"No, I want to follow you. If you don't want to tell me your secret then I won't ask anymore. Please don't send me away."

"I won't send you away. You are free to do what you wish. I only ask because you will grow older. You will follow me, we will find new magical creatures and see many places ... but you will also age and grow old. And at the end of your life ... you won't have anything. You would leave nothing behind. So I ask you again, are you certain that you want to follow me instead of finding a lovely young man to create a family with?"

"I am certain!", she tells me. I look at her and see the conviction in her eyes. So I nod my head. 

"Very well. Let's go, I will show you my home.", I say and take her to my home.

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Needless to say, Nuna absolutely loved my home. She was in awe for about two full weeks. She couldn't accept some of the things she saw in there. The automated kitchen and the cleaning. The house in general was hard for her to come to terms with. But she fell in love with the limitless space outside the house and the hundreds of thousands of magical creatures and plants that could be found there. 

She was sad when she understood what it was that I showed her. She was sad that she wouldn't be able to explore my home dimension in her lifetime. I told her the good news that everyone I take in here, only includes humans or guests, stop ageing for as long as they are in my home. She was ecstatic when she heard that and started to immediately walk through the different biomes that could be found in my home. 

From then on, I was mostly the only one wandering through the continent of South America. But when the day came when I would cross the Atlantic Ocean, she came outside for the first time in years. She had aged only a few months at most, since she spent most of her time in my home and explored the different biomes to see new magical creatures. 

"Are we really leaving now?", she asks me as I look at the Atlantic. 

"We are. Do you want to go back inside or will you sail with me?", I ask her. 

"Why do you want to sail anyway? You can just open a door to the other continent, no?"

"I could do that, yes. But when you are as old as I am, you take pleasure in the smallest things. And crossing the Atlantic is not a small thing. So I will surely enjoy myself."

"Hm ... ok, I'll try it as well.", she says.

"Good. Then allow me to prepare our boat.", I say and begin using Transfiguration on the trees to create a big boat for myself. Nuna was not a witch, so she couldn't use magic. She really wanted to, but it wasn't possible. I was looking for a ritual that might help her with this problem and maybe give her magic, but so far there was no luck. 

I never bothered with rituals, because I didn't need them. So when she asked me whether she could use magic as well, I was a bit perplexed. Rituals were the only thing that might work, so I decided to give it some thought. 

A moment later, a ship had been created and waited for us to start our journey to a new continent, Africa. I grabbed her and apparated on board. And then we were off. 

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The boat ride was not to Nuna's liking and very quickly, she went back inside my home dimension. I on the other hand enjoyed the wild and stormy weather, which caused big waves to shake the boat from left to right and splash cold water in my face. Soon, I landed in Africa and my travels through yet another continent began. 

I enjoyed my travels through Africa a lot. But I enjoyed all of my travels. I used human transfiguration again, to look similar to the natives. I met new people and experienced new food, which I would record and add to my 'Recipes of the World' book. I had quite a few books about various topics in the library already and Nuna was very eagerly reading them. I had taught her to read and write. 

I found many different magical creatures in Africa. I started my journey in the South of Africa, South Africa and made my way towards the North-East. In the future regions of Congo, Nuna and I encountered a gib herd of Tebo. The Tebo was a magical version of a Warthog. The Tebo was very dangerous and could make itself invisible, rendering it virtually impossible to capture or evade. Tebo hide is strong and therefore was often used by wizards and witches to make protective shields and clothing. 

It was quite a painful experience when Nuna and I met the Tebo. I sent Nuna back to the home dimension and had to endure some of their charges. But I managed to capture the herd and send them to my home as well. 

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I continued north, north-east from there and encountered many other creatures as well. For example the Streeler, a giant magical snail that changed colour every hour, and produced a poisonous slime. I found many Streelers in the more wet areas of Africa. In the dryer plains, I found Erumpents, which were huge grey magical beasts. It resembled a rhinoceros with a roundish body. It was a powerful creature, with a thick hide capable of repelling most curses and charms, a single long horn, and a thick tail. 

Interestingly enough, Erumpent did not attack unless provoked, but the results were usually fatal. The horn could pierce skin and metal, and the horn contained a deadly fluid that caused whatever was injected with it to explode. 

Erumpent numbers were not large, because male Erumpents frequently blew themselves up during mating season. Erumpents only gave birth to one calf at a time. It was good that I added some Erumpents to my home dimension. They would be able to grow in numbers undisturbed. 

In East Africa, I encountered Nundu's which were large magical beasts that resembled a leopard. They moved silently, despite their "gigantic" size and were considered by some to be the most dangerous creatures alive. The breath of the Nundu was toxic and filled with disease so potent that it could wipe out entire villages of people. 

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From the East of Africa, I travelled west. In the West of Africa, I met many other magical creatures. It was a treasure chest for magical beasts and plants and both Nuna and I were enjoying ourselves. 

Amongst those were Fwoopers. The Fwooper is a magical bird with brightly-coloured feathers, which could include orange, pink, lime green and yellow. One of the Fwoopers I found, immediately started some sort of rivalry with Emper, my Phoenix. They had a rivalry going on about whose twittering was 'better. 

Listening to the Fwooper's high-pitched, twittering song would drive the listener insane while listening to the Phoenix Lament was a form of song expressed by phoenixes. Its tunes were known to touch the soul, in positive or negative ways. So my money was on Ember winning this easily. 

Speaking of Ember, she had undergone changes over the years. She would usually grow older and then get reborn from the ashes. And the more she did that, the more she began to change. She grew bigger and her flames were hotter as well. 

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I thought that it had something to do with our bond. But Dumbledore also had a Phoenix and Fawks didn't change. 

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I also found several Runespoor. The Runespoor was a magical three-headed snake native to the country of Burkina Faso. Since they were very easy to spot, the Burkina Faso Ministry of Magic would make several forests Unplottable for the Runespoor's use, and to avoid sightings by non-wizards.

Runespoors are commonly six to seven feet long - exceptions are the one held by Newton Scamander that was gigantic in size - with orange and black stripes.

According to writings from Parselmouths, which I found and could read, thanks to my trip to India, many years ago, each of the Runespoor's heads served a different function.

The left head, from the perspective of someone facing the snake, was the planner; it decided where the Runespoor was to go and what it was to do next.

The middle head was the dreamer, it is common for a Runespoor to remain stationary for days lost in glorious visions and imaginations.

The right head was the critic; it evaluated the efforts of the left and middle heads with a continuous irritable hissing, and its fangs were highly venomous. It was common to see Runespoors with the right head missing, as the other two heads often banded together to bite it off when it criticised them too much. Because of this, the Runespoor rarely lived to a great age. 

I found this to be funny and when I listened to the right heads critique I had to laugh multiple times. It would truly critisies everything. The slowness of the middle head's decisions and the slow pace they had, the direction the left head chose was wrong, etc. 

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Nuna and I spent years in Africa. She would spend most of those years back home but would come out every once in a while for a time to see Africa and the magical creatures. She was growing older, but very slowly because of that. Right now, she looked like a 17-18 year old. 

After Africa, it was time for us to go to Europe. There were many many things to see there and the area for my future 'country'/'Empire' to find.