The Crusaders: Year One

Chapter Nine

Aang awoke to someone tapping his shoulder. He opened his eyes and was startled when he saw a creature with big eyes and bat-like ears. Realizing it was a house elf, he calmed down.

“Hello, who are you?” Aang asked in a whisper as he sat up.

“My name is Momo sir. I was sent by Professor Gyatso, he says he wishes to speak with you,” the house elf replied.

“Professor Gyatso sent you?” Aang asked, silently impressed by how well Momo could speak. He knew house elves have a different speech pattern, this one must be really smart to be able to mimic a human’s speech pattern.

Momo brought a finger up to his lips. “Shh, you must be quiet so you don’t wake the other boys.”

Aang nodded and slipped out of bed, grabbing his wand as he did. Momo motioned for him to follow. Aang followed the little house elf out of the dormitory, through the common room, and out the entrance. He was led up many stairs and through many corridors; the headmaster’s office was a long ways away from the Hufflepuff dorms.

Momo suddenly stopped beside a large stone gargoyle. “Please wait here while I go get Professor Gyatso.” And then he disappeared with a crack.

Aang looked around. The school was rather creepy at night. Though who is he to be scared when he is a creature everyone is terrified of. 

Suddenly, a bird fell into the corridor from a nearby window. Aang immediately rushed to the bird out of instinct. Getting closer, he saw that it was a owl. 

He carefully picked up the owl. “Are you okay?” 

The owl hooted in response. Aang carefully set the owl down on the windowsill. Now that the small creature was in the light, he could see that the owl was white with a black arrow on its head that went down its back.

On one of its wings, Aang noticed a string wrapped around it. “Poor thing, that must make it hard for you to fly.” 

He removed the string and said, “There you go.”

The owl closed its wing and looked up at Aang. The two stared at each other for a minute before the owl hooted and flew off.

Aang watched the bird fly off before looking down at the string, which was white yarn, and wondered who put it on the poor bird.

“That was a very kind thing you did,” a voice said.

Aang jumped and turned around to see Professor Gyatso standing beside the gargoyle with a kind smile. Aang didn’t know where we came from since he didn’t hear any footsteps and there wasn’t a single door in sight.

“Come,” Gyatso said. “Let’s take a walk around the grounds, and look at the marvelous plants Professor Bumi has planted this year for his herbology lessons.”

Aang followed the professor in silence as he led the way down the corridor. The boy kept stealing glances at the old professor, wondering why he had chosen to do this at midnight.

They stepped out into the moonlight, causing Aang to frown and tense up. Even if it wasn’t the full moon, being outside at night stressed him out. He feared the way  the pale light fell onto his skin. Sometimes, he’d think there’d be a malfunction with his body and he’d transform.

He always wondered how his body knew the difference between the full moon and the other moons. He wanted to read books on werewolves to find out, but at the same time he was afraid to pick up those types of books. He didn’t want to read the things people said about werewolves.

His parents always reassured him that he wasn’t a monster. That he wasn’t a true werewolf. That he would never hurt anyone.

They tried to stay strong for him, but Aang could see them do things when they thought he wasn’t looking. He sometimes peeked into his dad’s office to see him crying on the floor, surrounded by papers and books. Ever since Aang was bitten, he’d been searching for a cure to no avail. But Tinley wasn’t going to give up on his son.