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Siberian Taiga[1998]
–Damien Hawthorne—
"Woohoo!" He shouted with all his might, looking down at the endless expanse, flying through the air, without an airplane around him.
INtelectually, he knew there were quite literally dozens of different methods of flight available in this combined universe, some easily accessible, others not so but they definitely existed. To think that he would get to experience something like this so soon. And somehow, his fear of heights from his past life had not transferred over to his new one.
Or rather, he had much bigger things to worry about, rather than a pesky fall, which he could save himself from anytime, without much issue. All in all, he was enjoying it immensely, contrary to what the man and his magical ow l expected.
"You seem to be enjoying this far more than I expected. Don't you fear being dropped by a magical creature that seems to be wary of you?" The man loathed by his side, riding on a broom, hands in his pockets, looking ahead as the wind sent his hair, sparse as they were, flying back.
Man, he hoped to look at least as cool as the man in front of him when he eventually grew his beard out, put on some muscle, and flew in the air so nonchalantly. Though, chances were, by that time, he would have discovered unaided flight. If flight-of-death could do it, then so could he.
"What's not there to like? I like it." He said, basking in the flow of wind hitting his face just right. Then, he turned to the side, "Speaking of which, you still haven't told me your names. I mean, you literally have me by the Talons right now, so I don't see how there would be a risk in telling me."
The man sighed, slowing down as the distance between them shrank, the air noise from how fast they were going went down as well, allowing him to clearly listen to what he was saying, "Fine. My name is Severian Olegovich Drovosel."
The man, who had a stupidly long name, just looked at him as if he expected a reaction solely based on that name. After about 30 seconds of silence, he had to say, "I'm sorry, am I supposed to know who that is?"
It was quite amusing to watch the man look at him as if he were the odd one here. "You don't know who I am? The White Warden? Hermit of the North? The Silver Owl?"
He slowly shook his head, internally amused at the nicknames he sprouted out. He could understand the White Warden and the Silver Owl, because of his magical familiar and the White being due to his hair, but what is the Hermit of the North? Was this some recluse wizard about to take him to his hideout to kill him?
"Fine," Sev, as he had taken to call the man internally and very shortly, would call that to his face, exhaled, before turning forward, and floating away from the owl as they both picked up speed, and also reduced altitude as time passed, much to his alarm as they were getting very close to the ground very fast.
Thankfully, the owl's massive wingspan meant stopping abruptly was an easy enough affair, if a bit jerky one, as they landed in a clearing. A very generic looking clearing.
If not for the fact that he knew they had flown quite far away, he would have thought they were just a few minutes away from his cave, which just told him how massive this place was. He wondered if his previous plan to just walk until he found something to get him out of this place was as foolish as it was implausible.
"So, where are we, Sev?" He asked cheekily, taking full advantage of his baby face.
The man shot him a scathing glare, one which he returned with a smile on his face, as the standoff broke, with Sev taking his wand out and walking forward, the owl having taken its rightful place on Sev's shoulder, glaring at him.
What did he ever do to the owl?
His eyes narrowed as he watched Sev wave his wand in a complex pattern, circular patterns merging mid air as he could taste the magic in the air. The air around them thrummed with magic, as the glow around Sev's wand began increasing until he stopped and thrust it forward, as if piercing something.
His eyes widened as a previously hidden magical construct appeared mid air, with the wand fitting in as the key to the lock, a magical hum being heard before the lock disappeared, and the heavy magic with it, revealing a door to him.
His eyes widened as he recognised the colour scheme. Red, yellow with streaks of gold, all coming together to form complex enhancements, some of which he could not make head or tail of, not without some formal idea of what began where and ended where.
Nevertheless, he could tell that whatever this door was, it was not something a mere wizard could do. He glanced at Sev. This might be more than he could chew at the moment, but eh, what the hell!
A little excitement after all that monotonous boredom might not be so bad. Plus, he had trust in the literally ROB given clothing, and if worse came to pass, he had some nuclear options he wanted to check out.
"Scared?" Sev's amused voice reached him as he looked at the glowing door. Rolling his eyes, he stepped forward and scoffed, "Please! As if some Sorcery was going to scare me. Don't let the door scrape your knees on your way in, old man."
Whatever retort was in Sev's mind never reached him as he walked through the door, closing his eyes at the bright flash that almost blinded him and when he opened them, his jaw hung open, looking at what could only be described as a tropical paradise to him.
"What the fu–"
"Language," A hand pressed on top of his head as Sev's amused voice reached him, as he gawked at the scene in front of him. He flinched a little as he saw what he was pretty sure were dinosaurs, flying around, with the greenery stretching as far as his vision could go.
"What is this place?" He whispered, taking a deep breath, and marvelling at the sensation of magic he could feel everywhere. It was nice too, nothing like the prickly feeling of the ritual from those vampires or the icy one from that Demonic Seal he found near his home.
It was….freeing.
"This is…Elysium." Sev announced with gravity in his voice.
He snorted at that, "Elysiyum, really? An afterlife? Are we dead?"
"Brat."
"Seriously, what is this place?"
"This is one of the last strongholds for magic and its creatures, one of the few places on the planet where children of Magic can take free breaths, without being worried about being hunted down to be harvested for their parts."
"So, a magical sanctuary? You are what? A conservationist?"
"Yes," Sev replied, seriously.
"Huh." He said out loud, taking a step forward, and finding himself standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down into what he was pretty sure was a river of lava. The distance could not have been that far, but still he did not feel a modicum of heat, a cool, pleasant breeze hitting his body at all times.
"Isn't this supposed to be, like a secret? Why did you bring me here?" He asked the question that came to his mind when he first saw this place. No way this place was known to the wider wizarding world. If it was, it would have been liberated, unless it had a guardian that forced everyone away but after taking a glance at Sev, he ruled out him being that guardian.
He could be strong and his familiar definitely upped his threat rating, but he was no Dumbledore or Grindlewald, never mind that both of them together would not have been able to stop human greed from overcoming this place.
"Even if you know about it, what can you do about it?" Sev returned his question with another question. He raised a finger to object but then set it down when he realised that Sev was right.
"Touche."
Sev shook his head, as his familiar latched its claws on his shoulders, tightening them on his forcefield, something that was bound to confuse both Sev and the owl, which seemed to hate him for no reason at all. "Come on, I am already late."
Late? For what?
The owl whisked him away, as they began flying in spirals, moving through entire labyrinths made up of tree roots, some of which went down towards the lava river, which was interesting, as they finally reached what looked like a large compound of sorts.
They landed in front of a gate, where an elderly man, slightly hunched, leaning on a wooden stick, was waiting for them, in worn-out wizard robes and a scarf in shades of yellow and black, also worn out with use.
Even before the owl had dropped him, the old man had begun marching towards them, raising his walking stick towards Sev as if berating him, and then his eyes widened as the old wizard actually did hit Sev in the head with that stick, and Sev took it, despite the sound it made, telling him that it must have hurt.
It was only during the third strike that the old wizard stopped, turned to him, before snapping at Sev once more.
"You fool! What have you done? What is a brat doing here?"
Meanwhile, he watched the entire show with an air of amusement, especially since he finally got to see the first serious expression on Sev's face, one of awkward resignation, as Sev finally spoke, "Teacher, this is Damien Hawthorne."
The Teacher, swatted at Sev with the stick once more before walking towards him. He branched for impact but then realised he was in a forcefield, as the grandpa wizard extended his hand and said with a weathered smile on his old face, "Hello, child. I don't know what this buffoon did and why he brought you here, but I will make sure he rectifies his mistake. Ah! Where are my manners? Tina would have whipped me if she were here. My name is Newt Scamander. Nice to meet you. Come, let me make you some tea!"
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