The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Charkorais Bird

The Charkorais Bird

The fading sunlight turned the leaves and the sky pale gold, and three forms moved through the trees, ducking branches and brush. Fireflies dotted the dark spaces beneath the canopy, little specks, glowing merrily. In the distance, there were crickets chirping, the low song of birds bidding the day farewell, and far off, the howl of a wolf.

A natural wolf, that is.

"This way," called the figure in the lead, "This way... hurry..."

Newt Scamander broke through the treeline, wiping twig and leaf from his hair, his old Hufflepuff scarf catching on a branch, and he tugged it free as Ned Veigler and Remus Lupin stepped through the trees as well, into a clearing that led up to a cliff that overhung a great valley that seemed to stretch off endlessly. Newt trotted toward the cliffedge with the two younger men, smiling up at the slowly rising crescent moon in the sky, the light of which was slowly pushing away the stretches of the gold fingers of the sun to replace it with silver. "Yes," he whispered, "Yes it's a lovely moon, we - uh - we should see the creature. Very soon, if my calculations are correct." He rolled up his oxford shirt sleeves and checked the time on his watch. "Any time now, really." He turned his chin up to look to the sky.

Remus was nervous and excited at the same time.

They sat on the grass and stared up into the sky, waiting...

As the moonlight fell over him, Remus felt an aching in his bones, and he absently rubbed his knee caps as they sat there. Veigler reached over and nudged Remus, offering him a handful of aconite leaves, and Remus gratefully took them and put the minty-licorice flavored leaves into his mouth and chewed them like they were a gum, feeling a bit of relief rush through his body.

"There she is," said Newt suddenly, standing up.

Remus quickly turned to look the direction Newt Scamander was looking, but there did not seem to be anything there. He squinted, wanting to see it, too. Veigler didn't seem to be able to, either, and Remus wondered if it was like the thestrals back at Hogwarts, the winged death ponies that only those who had seen death could see...

But then Remus saw... something... a shimmering in the dark sky, a shape moving... He leaned forward, nearly cross eyed he was staring so hard at the shimmering space before him. It was like trying to see the wind. And then the sun disappeared completely beneath the horizon... and the moon was officially the only entity in the sky... and there was a sort of sizzling sound - like the end of a firecracker - and suddenly there in the sky was the curling twisting silver form of the bird - her body seeming to slowly shiver in view,

"Incredible," breathed Remus as the bird coiled her way into the night sky. He stared, unable to tear his eyes away, tilting his head back to watch.

"I thought that you, uh, might... might enjoy this one," Newt said quietly, smiling.

Remus asked, "What is she?"

"She's a Charkorais," he said lowly.

"Chakorais," breathed Remus, feeling the exoticness of the word on the tip of his tongue.

"Yes," Newt whispered, and his face turned, following the charkorais as she spun and unfolded, "Yes - an Indian breed of bird, a sort of night bird, singing in into the wee hours of the morning.."

As though on cue, the charkorais leaned closer to loop 'round, beak nearly touching her impossibly long, silver tail feathers, which reminded Remus of a peacock's plume, or of Fawkes the Phoenix if he was silver, and she started to sing. Her song was beautiful, warbly and romantic, like a well played violin. The song poured forth... so clear and shining that it seemed to almost tangible in the moonlight.