Silver and Green with Envy: A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter Twenty-One

"Elena, Mr. Hill has truly outdone himself. Look."

Natty finished braiding my hair up and turned me toward a mirror. I barely recognized myself. The outfit clung to me like a second skin, though I could so easily move in it. The coat shimmered emerald in the moon and candlelight. 

I felt like it was still missing something though, digging through one of the chests I kept there and finding what I needed fairly quickly. I wrapped an old house scarf around my neck and the lower part of my face. 

"I feel like I could earn a nickname in this."

Both girls laughed and we left as Poppy handed me a few wiggenweld potions to tuck away in my coat pocket. 

They were fascinated by the tunnel to the point where Poppy almost lost her footing due to not paying attention. But we made it into the Three Broomsticks easily enough. 

We could hear movement upstairs, and the mumblings of people talking, but everything seemed calm enough. I picked at the sleeves of my shirt and looked for the cellar door, finding the stairs to it in the back left corner of the room. "Alright. The sun's already about set, so I'm going to go. You two can stay in here, or go upstairs and tell Sirona. Just try not to give her a heart attack, and try not to get spotted."

"Remember, Lower Hogsfield. There are some ruins to the east of the camp. And Elena? You need to be really careful. They have a few adolescent Acromantulas."

The look I gave Poppy made her flinch. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"...I didn't think you'd go if you knew you were saving spiders."

And she was right. I probably wouldn't have. 

Normal spiders? The sorts you find in old dusty basements or weaved into the branches and twigs of bushes? Fine. 

The horse sized beasts I'd fought far too many of during my fifth year? Not fine. Thornback spiders were bad enough. Acromantulas were far worse than that. One would attack upon feeling threatened...the other attacked because it liked to.

"Did either of you bring an uncommon antidote?" I doubted it.

"I have two, here. Don't ask me where I got them."

Poppy handed me one and without staying and arguing the point further, I left the basement and quietly found the back door, stepping out into the night air. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, steeling myself before disapparating out and to the edge of Lower Hogsfield.

I cloaked myself in a disillusionment charm before I headed further into the woods, not wanting to risk running into anything other than poachers. I walked for a while, just off the path, and keeping my ears open until I heard the sounds of skittering, clicking, and yelling.

Looking up I spotted the top of a crumbling tower off to the side, so I knew I was in the right spot. 

I crept closer, finally seeing the encampment. It looked no different than any of the others I had ever come across, but a gust of wind brought the smell of death to my nostrils and it was all I could do not to wretch. I saw a large, reinforced cage toward the middle of the tents and tables. Littered around the bottom of it, were the drained corpses of Mooncalves, puffskeins, and a few nifflers. 

The spiders were still eating. I had to look away. 

Putting myself against and behind a tree, I counted eight poachers total. And a wolf. 

I'd dealt with worse. 

I wondered how I should do this. The camp was one of the smaller ones I had been to, so sneaking around and putting them down that way wasn't going to be possible. All of them seemed like they were on higher alert than normal, though if that was because of the spiders or because they'd been warned about me had yet to be seen.