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Chapter 8

“What do you mean there’s something living in the woods? What if you just saw a bush-man, they're known to roam these parts.” Lorelei asked, hoping beyond hope that her friend might see reason. Bush-men are tall tree-like beings covered head to toe in furnish leaves and growths, their forest green turning brown in the fall, causing many Muggles to mistake these gentle giants as ‘Sasquatches’.

“I know what I saw, Lei.” Robin whispered back, trying not to get caught by Professor Aster for talking during his lecture on even versus odd numbers. They had been going back and forth since last night, and all through breakfast this morning abou what Robin saw during the Quodpot game. While she trusts her friend to not make things up for attention, it just seemed illogical for a creature to be standing so close to the school grounds without a teacher knowing, let alone the headmaster.

“I trust your vision,” started Lorelei, pretending to write notes with her quill, “but there are so many variables. What if the heat was getting to you? Or the adrenaline from flying? What if what you saw was just one of the Pukwudgies?”

“That thing was not a Pukwudgie. It was at least six feet tall, and the Wudges aren’t exactly giants.” Robin angrily whispered back, frustrated that her friend doesn’t believe her.

“But what if—“

“Miss Raywood. Is there something more important than the lesson?” Asked an irked Professor Aster, with his arms crossed in the classic teacher who was just interrupted. After mumbling an embarrassed ‘no professor’, she avoided eye contact by keeping her nose to her notes, noticing the hurried way Robin was scribbling on a piece of parchment next to her. Once finished, she ripped the parchment and slid it over to Lorelei, all while keeping her eyes glued to her open textbook.

The torn parchment had on it a rough drawing of what looked like the tree line that surrounded the castle grounds, with a shadowy figure watching behind a pine tree. It was enough to make Lorelei feel uneasy in her stomach at the thought that there could be something or someone watching just behind the darkness. Could Robin be right? Did she really see this thing?

The girls’ conversation was brought to a halt for the remainder of class, and the rest of the day. Robin, fed up and disgruntled that Lorelei didn’t believe her, chose not to talk about the matter or the game. While they took a break from the mysterious creature, Lorelei held on to the drawing Robin gave her during class. She’s not sure why she didn’t just throw away the parchment, but something told her to hold on to it, at least for now.

It was a few days later, September 13, and Lorelei was walking through the castle to meet Robin in the library. For any other student, this would be a normal, if not mundane, experience. But the fact that Robin was the one to initiate the meetup in the library was a cause for alarm. The only other time she wanted to meet there was in second year when she had a crush on an upperclassman, Sylvia Hawks, who was studying for her midterms, and Robin loved to watch her scrunch her brows in confusion only to glow at getting the answer right.

As she entered the library, Lorelei took a deep breath of knowledge, the same thing she did every time she entered the old building. As the best place in the school, possibly the world, Lorelei found all the comfort and safety she could in here. Surrounded by large wooden bookcases, both on the ground and second level, there were various places to sit at a round table and study. There were also plenty of comfy chairs and couches to relax in with a cup of smuggled tea in the winter time, hoping that Miss Belrose and her one good eye don’t catch you. For an older woman missing most of her teeth, and hair, she moves very fast and can smell a wrongdoing a mile away. One time, during her first winter at Ilvermorny, Lorelei got a very stern scolding when the older woman found her sitting in an armchair next to one of the tall windows with a cup of warm cider. As one of her many rules, Ms. Prim enforces each and every one of them; including no food or drink allowed.

Making her way through the different sections of books, Lorelei kept her eyes on the lookout for her friend. After checking the table near natural sciences, she found Robin sitting at a round table with a few books opened around her. She was so absorbed in whatever she was reading that Lorelei’s presence almost went unnoticed, being able to place her bag down before taking a seat.

”Oh, was wondering when you’d get here.” She said absentmindedly, still skimming with her finger from one book to another. Apparently, Robin had told Amanda Logg, the Horned Serpents’ monitor, to tell Lorelei to meet her in the library. It was a game of telephone that Lorelei didn’t see the need for, considering it was a Friday so they didn’t have any classes or impending schoolwork to accomplish. “I already know what you’re gonna say, ‘Robin you’re crazy, researching for a creature you only saw for a split second’. But I’m telling you, it won’t leave my head.” That was an understatement. Robin had missed several important class notes and announcements because the shadow creature had taken up residence in the forefront of her mind.

“Now, I’ve already gotten some really good ideas of what it could be. For instance,” she began, then grabbing one of the open books around for Lorelei to look at. “It could be a Drake, they’re like giant lizard things, but my creature wasn’t walking on four legs. It could also be an Erkling,” another book, “but those aren’t native to America. So,” she now looked directly at Lorelei, the first time since she sat down, “I’d really appreciate it if I could enlist you and your bookish knowledge for help in identifying this thing. Then, and only then, will I be able to shut up about it. Whattaya say?” She ended with a lopsided smile and her hand reached out for a friendly shake.

It took a minute for everything she had rambled about to sink in, but eventually Lorelei weighed her options. She could either say no and possibly hear about this being for all of eternity, or lose her best friend by denying her account of what she saw. Or, she could spend an afternoon researching magical creatures to narrow down what Robin saw and put this behind them to laugh about next month.

“Miss Copper, you have yourself a deal.” She shook Robin’s hand, sporting a smile of her own. Once business was taken care of, Lorelei went over to the Magizoology bookcase and chose what she felt would help their hunt the most.

After looking through their books, and asking Robin questions to get a mental image of her own, Lorelei was beginning to think Doctor Eurico Lyptus’s Magical Menagerie wasn’t going to have the answers she sought. So, book in hand, she went back over to the bookcase and replaced the book. Whilst peeing at the titles and reading some descriptions, Lorelei felt the presence of someone walking towards her.

“Hey, Lei. Funny seeing you here.” Lorelei looked over to see Orville Doe, in all his charming glory to be speaking to her. Despite being one of the taller girls in her house, Orville’s height still had her looking up at his dark town eyes.

“Hey, hi. Yes, it is funny seeing you here.” She felt very flustered all of a sudden, forgetting her words, until they slowly came back. “Wh-why is it funny to see me here?”

He laughed, short and sweet, merely a puff of air.” Because you’re always studying. Even on a Friday.”

“Oh, well actually I’m helping Robin…” she stopped short. What does she tell him? ‘No I’m not studying, in fact, I’m helping my possibly delusional friend identify the creature she saw the other day while flying a hundred miles an hour on a broom, no biggie’. Definitely not. Instead, she chose to go the less insane route, hopefully with less chances of scaring him off. “I’m helping Robin with a project.” His handsome features crinkled in question. “It’s about magical beasts and monsters and such. Trying to find the right book that might match the description she was given.

The suspicion melted away from his face, his dimpled smile appearing instead. “Oh, what a cool assignment. I wish Shrew gave out such unique homework.”

“Ha, yeah, instead of the usual ‘turn this scarf into a stoat’,” she joked to him.

This caused Orville to let out a truly deep laugh, a harmonious thing for Lorelei to hear, causing her cheeks to heat up knowing it was her doing. She wanted to make him laugh more, bottle each one up and savor them in secret from any judging eyes. “That was a really good one.” He told her, then moving his eyes to the books in front of them. “Here,” he said, grabbing a big book titled The Big Book of Fur and Scales, and handed it over to Lorelei. “This is a really good one, it has great pictures and drawings too. Good luck.” With that, Orville Doe casually walked back up the row and took a turn, out of sight. Taking a moment to linger in the air he took up, smelling like spices and wood, before Lorelei too walked back to the table her and Robin were occupying.

Her friend hadn’t noticed a thing, not the dreamy smile on Lorelei’s lips nor the new book in her hands. Instead, she remained glued to the book before her. Taking another deep breath, Lorelei put the interaction with Orville into her own mental library, for later remembrance, and opened the book he thought might help her.

It was hours later, the sun almost setting on the school, and the girls still haven't found what caught Robin’s eye. They went through almost every possible creature, living or extinct, that could have possibly been lurking in the shadows of the forest. They tried Erklings, but they’re not tall enough. Then a Leithfold, but those are native to the Tropics. It was getting to the point where Lorelei was getting a headache and the only cure was to never read about a tall, dark figure ever again.

With a slight pounding in her head, Lorelei was ready to call it quits but she knew Robin was too stubborn to let her. She was about ready to close her book and leave without saying a word, until Robin abruptly got up from her seat.

”That’s it! I’ve had it! Whatever it was will just have to haunt me,” she exclaimed whilst walking around the table, “for the rest of my life into my old age because there is no way we are going to find it! I, Robin Ophelia Copper, officially qu— go back one page.” She stopped walking right as she reached Lorelei, getting a view of her book over her shoulder. While her friend was renting she was flipping its pages without paying attention, that is until Robin told her to go back one.

Doing as she told, Lorelei flipped the old book’s page back to the one before. With great enthusiasm that she didn’t know her friend still possessed after all the hours in the library, Robin pointed to a drawing. “That’s it, that’s what I saw! Lorelei, we did it!”

Lorelei looked to where her friend’s finger was in the book, pointing to a lithe figure with a horned skull head. The artist had drawn it in the dark surrounded by trees and shadows, the figure and its limbs seemingly morphing into its environment. Somehow, having never seen the creature before in her life, Lorelei felt the same uneasy feeling in her stomach that Robin’s drawing flicked.

The drawing! I still have it!

Reaching into her bag and rummaging through her parchment pieces, she found the drawing that Robin slid to her during class. Placing the paper next to the drawing in the book and all puzzle pieces fit, but many questions were left unanswered. The drawing Robin made looked almost like a child’s rendition of what the book depicted, freakishly accurate to each other. After looking at the picture, both girls then looked at the name of it, and a feeling of dread and fear washed over them.

Cutis Cervus Vir

Skinwalker