The Monster Hunt for Monsters (GreenFire)

[firejay1]

Nenet hadn't wanted to scream like a little girl with a mixture of surprise, pain, and fear, backing away hastily from the beads. She bit her bottom lip to hold back the tears that threatened when Kirn asked if she was alright. "I'm fine." She said, tightly, even as the kind younger girl healed them quickly for her. Kirn again showed some wisdom in doing his best to take care of the beads, nearly halting their division altogether and moving as many of them out of the way as possible, but there were just so many of them. She joined in, pulling her wand out after a murmured thank you to Nyla, and trying to move the beads away from them. The noise from the other side of the curtain didn't escape her notice either. It was impossible to tell just yet what was there waiting for them, a strange haziness made it difficult to look beyond the beads, but she thought she could hear an odd clopping and crackling, two sounds that didn't quite fit together just right.

Jae, for his part, was being utterly unhelpful. It didn't even look like he was trying to help; he had a thoughtful look on his face, scanning the opening with ever-so-slightly narrowed eyes. His black wand was held loosely in his hand, but she got the sense that he was totally alert. It took some time for them to remove almost all of the beads from the opening, and Nenet approached again, much more warily this time. Jae did not move. After testing the opening warily with a couple of spells, Nenet slid a toe over the threshold.

Quite suddenly, there was a ripple of energy and the opening expanded to the width of the entire room, the space beyond impossibly large. She got a glimpse of a heavy-set desk standing in the middle of a plain white floor, with several colored tiles surrounding it. And then there was a whinny, and Nenet had to jerk backwards as a large white horse with flaming hooves nearly trampled her to death. She yelped as it snorted heavily at her and reared up to kick her in the chest. "Stop!" She screamed at it in Egyptian, scrambling back again and for a second, it seemed to pause, as if slightly confused, giving her enough time to get out of harm's way and brandish her wand again. What in the world was this creature? And why was it here?

 

[Greenie]

"Be careful-" Kirn had uttered the words a little too late it seemed. He barely managed to enter behind Nenet when he had to jump back so that she wouldn't crash into him as she moved away from the large and fiery white horse. His wand was pointing at the creature immediately, but he stopped just as she yelled out. At first he was unsure if she was telling him to stop, remaining frozen in his spot; his eyes were all that defied that order as he swiftly looked to the doorway. Nyla was standing there but she hadn't entered, thank goodness.​

A split second later his gaze returned to the creature in the room, and it was then he realized that the beast had paused as well, if only for a moment. Movement began a little too soon for comfort though, and once more the fiery horse rushed toward Nenet.​

"Arresto Momentum!" he yelled out once more, attempting to cast the charm on the horse, who while seemingly stopped was attempting to struggle against the charm. "Nenet, it listened to you, didn't it? It stopped when you yelled at it to, even if it was for a moment." Sweat was speckling his forehead, both from the heat as well as trying to keep the horse from moving. "I think I know what it is, and to keep it under control, you have to assert yourself!" If he wasn't mistaken, this was a demon horse from Japan known as Entei, who only let those of of strength and strong will tame them. Kirn didn't know if this was possible, but if they could for a small but constant amount of time, he might just be able to trap it in his backpack.​

 

[firejay1]

The horse snorted and kicked its feet, apparently forcing its way slowly through the effects of the charm. "A-assert myself?!" Nenet stammered, trying to move out of the horse's line of sight. As the first person to enter the room, the horse seemed most angry at her, frothing slightly and turning its head to look at her when she moved. She didn't know why the horse had paused, but she didn't know what she was supposed to do about it either. Through the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Jae zipping through the doorway, rolling past them and keeping low to the ground. He moved frighteningly quickly, keeping his movements subtle, and she saw him mostly as a distracted side note while frantically looking for a way out of their current situation.

Kirn had to know what he was doing, though. He was the magical creatures expert. Right? Right? Nenet could tell she was panicking slightly, but she wasn't built for high-adrenaline situations. Watching her mother slowly die of sickness had taken a certain kind of fortitude, so she wouldn't say she was poor under high-stress situations, but ask her to fight a monster, and she was about as useful as a sugar quill in a sword fight. "Wh- what do you mean assert-"

The horse ripped free of the charm quite suddenly and shot for her, breathing hard. She stumbled backwards, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. When she forced them open again, the horse was bearing down on her, too close for comfort. She glared at it straight in the eyes, and for a second her eyes glowed golden. She opened her mouth and spoke in a way that was surprisingly loud and strong for her. "Stop." She said again, this time in English.

 

[Greenie]

Nyla was still in the doorway so she hadn't seen what Kirn had, her eyes on Jae instead. Kirn however had clearly seen the Egyptian witch's eyes glow before she ordered the horse to stop. What on earth... Whether it had something to do with the fiery Entei or not, the fact was that her voice worked and the beast was no longer moving, captive under the spell that was simply her commanding voice. It was just as Kirn had expected could happen and hoped would- it was a relief to see his trust in the young woman paid off.​

Without wasting another second, he let his backpack drop off his shoulders to the ground, crouching down so that he could easily unzip the main zipper and thereafter the subsequent one that would lead to an ideal setting where the Entei's flames wouldn't hurt anyone.​

"Alright," he called, keeping his voice calm and steady. Looking up, he could see only the two girls were still there. Where had Jae gone? Never mind that now! "Nenet, Nyla, I'm unzipping the desert compartment in my bag. As soon as it's open, I want both of you to send the Entei in there with a banishing spell. Once it's in, it will be safe and we will be safe too!" Perhaps they'd even have a chance to see why it was so easily affected by Nenet. After finding and saving the white tiger, of course.​

 

[firejay1]

While the others were preoccupied with the great big horse distraction, Jae took the advantage to slip past and reach the desk. He checked it for curses as best he could, but there was no telling when the horse would notice what he was doing, so he took a chance and hastily opened it up. Most anyone would have been disappointed with the contents. There were no magical artefacts, no jewels or gold. Jae, on the other hand, was very pleased with the stack of papers he found in the desk. A quick scan revealed several maps, at least one of which had to be magical, and a registry of the creatures, their buyers, and their origins. He recognized the registry for what it was, but some kind of enchantment had been placed on it, making it impossible to read without one's eyes swimming.

He stuffed the papers into his pack roughly, and was about to turn away from it, when he noticed something strange about the bottom of the drawer. It felt oddly hollow. He tapped his wand against it, experimenting with a couple different patterns. Finally, the bottom gave a pop and a click and a small metal ball rolled out. It was a little smaller than the size of his fist and carved with the strangest patterns. The style was old and fluid, but appeared to merge the artistic styles of every single ancient civilization in the world. The patterns were all of various animals, some of which did not even exist, and they were moving like a regular painting might. Jae thought he even saw a Chinese dragon pattern snake across the surface, a Korean three-legged crow pecking at it as it passed.

He surreptitiously slipped the ball into his pocket, and rolled away again, racing back past the skirmish before the horse could notice that he had cleaned out its charge. He had no idea what the ball was, but he was going to find out. He was out of the room and the warehouse in general before the others had even noticed. He pulled the papers from his pack and began to peruse them, waiting patiently for the others to come out.

Nenet, for her part, was shaking. She didn't know why the horse was listening to her, but she got the impression that if she let even the slightest bit of weakness show, it was going to go right back to pouncing on her. She was staring the horse in the eyes, concentrating with all her might on winning this battle of wills they had going on. She heard what Kirn was saying, but struggled to process it. She couldn't risk looking at whatever he was preparing. It didn't matter that she didn't understand what he meant about the desert compartment, she focused on what she could understand - use a banishing spell and they would be safe.

She couldn't tell what was going on, but a burst of unusual color and movement made her guess that the "desert compartment" or whatever it was had been unleashed, so she swished her wand, eyes still on the beast in front of them, and bellowed, "Depulso!" with all her might.

 

[Greenie]

Nyla had been helping out with sending the beast into her brother's backpack, but when she saw Jae heading forward into the room, her focus was split- she was wondering what he was doing. She could tell he had found something... no, it was more than just one thing. Her grey eyes shifted back to Nenet and Kirn. Figuring they would be able to help the fire horse or whatever it was, and also guessing it would probably be best to have someone with Jae, the shy and short witch tried to call out to them that she would be heading after the other wizard.​

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Alas the attempt was terrible as not only was she soft spoken, but the raging flames, the racing beast and the atmosphere in general dulled her voice. Decided Kirn would figure out where she had gone, she turned around and quickly started back the way they had come, though not as quickly as Jae, as she realized when she exited the warehouse; it seemed as if he had been there for a while.​

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"Uhm..." She approached him cautiously, much like he too was an intimidating creature burning the room with intense fire. "Did... did you find anything?"​

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Meanwhile back in the warehouse...​

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Despite Nyla's having left, the power of Nenet's spell was enough to send the Entei into the desert compartment of Kirn's backpack. Without waiting any longer than he had to, Kirn yanked at the zipped and pulled it closed. He could feel it struggling to escape, but he had trust in his bag- it had been made strong enough to hold even dragons.​

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"Phew," he commented, wiping at his sweaty forehead with the back of his arm, pushing away hair that was stuck to his face from the dampness. Closing up the backpack completely, he then hurried over to Nenet to make sure she was alright.​

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"Are you alright?" he asked, concern apparent in his sky blue eyes.​

 

[firejay1]

Jae cast the girl a dismissive glance as she came out, but noted that the others were not with her. She had come out much more quickly than he had expected her to, and perhaps it could be said that he was surprised she was daring to approach him after having left the others to their own devices. With the cold stare he used to look at her, he might as well have been the fiery creature she was treating him as. He shook the papers at her. "Yes. I believe these are smuggler's ledgers. There are also maps. But you can see there are enchantments on them. They are hard to read." He eyed her a little skeptically, debating whether or not it was worth sharing any information with this slip of a white girl. He supposed it couldn't hurt, so smoothed out the paper he had been inspecting and held it out for her. "Be careful. Do not rip or drop."

~~

Seeing that the fiery horse had been properly banished, Nenet let out a huge breath she hadn't known she'd been holding onto, her knees giving out from underneath her. She gave a shaky laugh and looked up at Kirn, grateful that he had come over to check on her. "Yes, I am okay." She said a little shakily. "Th-thank you. I was just so scared." She let out a long breath. "I'm terribly sorry." She said, sheepishly, getting to her feet. "I don't mean to be such a hindrance. Where- where did the horse go? And where are Nyla and Jae?"

 

[Greenie]

Nyla managed not to gulp as she took the papers being offered to her, a little nervous that she might actually drop or rip them, now that he mentioned it. She held the tightly before loosening her grip, not wanting to crumple them and earn Jae's wrath that way. Licking at her dry lips, she looked down at the sheets of paper, grey eyes narrowing slightly as she tried to make out what was written on them.​

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Unsure if it would work but not wishing to be a complete dunderhead, the witch carefully held the paper's with one hand and grasped her wand with her other one, tapping the paper as she murmured an "Aparecium."​

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*​

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"You're most welcome, Nenet." Kirn stepped back to give the poor girl some space, feeling sorry for her. This was most certainly not what she had thought herself hired for, and he sympathized with her plight. "And no need to apologize. Anyone would have been frightened by that Entei. You could have run away yet you didn't, and because of your help, he is safely stowed away where he can no longer harm anyone."​

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He reached over and gave her shoulder a reassuring pat before continuing. "If you've heard of Newt Scamander, then you must have heard of his valise that he carried with him, leading to an alternate space where he had a refuge for different magical beasts. He is one of my inspirations, and I created my backpack in the same fashion as his bag." Kirn's blue eyes shone before he let out a sheepish chuckle. "I should probably not go on and on about it- we have more important things to worry about. Come, let's find the two... I'm guessing they must've headed back out."​