Tides of Turmoil (NEWTINA)

Chapter 26: The Fourth

My lungs, my brain, and my heart had stopped working; time had frozen everything around me. It all felt miles away, and colour seemed to disintegrate into the darkness of the night. 

'Tina?! Tina!!' As quickly as I could, I reached and grabbed her before she fell. The cut in my arm stung, but I pushed the pain aside; it didn't feel too deep, and it wasn't my immediate concern at the moment. I slid off Seira's shoulders and slumped onto the ground, holding Tina's upper body up. She looked pale, white like marble; her forehead was furrowed as if she was having troubled dreams; her body wasn't shaking nor solid as Petrified, but merely limp. 

'Wait-W-What's happened?' asked Jacob as he crunched down in front of me, looking down to Tina with worried eyes.

'I don't know...' I muttered, trying to control my breathing and clear all worst answers out of my head. Taking a deep breath, I reached with my hand and placed it as softly as I could on her cheek. I flinched and sucked in a breath, but I didn't remove my hand.

'What?' asked Jacob anxiously.

'Cold...' I whispered.

'She looks it, true... how cold?' he quickly said, using his hand to touch her forehead. He withdrew it quickly as if burned. He gulped, looking right at me. 'She's beyond one can get, Newt. I-I don't know; she is all b-but...' 

He stopped himself as he locked his eyes with mine; he quickly looked down. But I knew what he was about to say, given that the thought, as undesirable as it was, had slithered into our minds: It seemed that Tina... She seemed... to be all, but dead.

Suddenly, the thought grew large, and it morphed into the rawest form of panic I've ever known. It felt as if my soul was being dragged out of my body; it felt like I was removing innumerable icy, cactus spikes from my flesh and bone. My voice seemed to have left too, for when I tried to talk to Jacob, not a sound came out.

However, Jacob proved to me one more time what a great man and friend he was. He looked at me and gave me a reassuring smile, relief glowing out of him. Confused above all, he explained. 'It's alright: she's alive, pal. look,' he said and showed me his hand with Tina's wrist. 

Understanding, I took her pulse. It was faint, but strongly there. I felt an incredible warmth kindle and spread all over my body. I let out a heavy breath of relief, and I looked up to the sky, idiotically double-checking if the sun had come out; all I could see were stars, shiny and rather blurry as I blinked rapidly.

Silence set itself around us. The trees yawned, and the leaves whistled as the wind blew stronger. I closed my eyes and lowered my head, opening them as I gazed down to Tina. A purr next to me caught my attention. I looked in front of me and saw Seira gaze down to Jacob with the purest curiosity in her eyes; Jacob was looking back with the same soft expression.

Smiling slightly, I looked to my left to my case and reached for it with a free hand - my right arm was starting to hurt a bit due to the cut. I laid it on the ground and turned to look at Seira.

'Don't look like that - you are not safe here,' I said softly but firmly as I took my wand out and pointed at my case. Only opening a sufficient amount of gap, the case opened and closed as the fluffy bird toy on a stick. I jiggled it, and Seira's eyes turn eager as she gazes at the toy and, coordinating everything, I opened my case with my wand, dropping the toy inside of it while Seira leapt and dived after it. Once her tail entered, my case automatically closed and snapped itself shut.

Chuckling, Jacob sat down on the ground as he stared at the case. 'I once saw this trick be done at the fair - well, it was done with a rabbit, sure. This, however, takes the whole cake.'