Compared to the embarrassing photos captured of Pandro, Ariana's photos were somewhat less satisfactory, primarily because Ian's photography skills were inherently lacking.
Without professional photographers, it's hard to develop good photography skills for those who have never had a girlfriend.
"Let's take a picture together."
Ian saw that Pandro had caught his breath, reached out and pulled him up, wrapping an arm around each friend. With a shout of "cheese," he pressed the shutter.
The camera click froze the moment.
In the slowly developing photo, Ian's smile was radiant, Ariana's smile was a bit rushed but much more natural than Pandro's slightly bewildered and clumsy expression.
Since Pandro may have never seen a camera, he looked utterly at a loss, akin to Neville – the warm yet slightly humorous image was a portrait of the living and the dead.
Truly one of a kind.
"Great, everyone's expressions are perfect!" Ian habitually shook the newly printed photo, feeling that everything that needed showcasing was captured in it.
"You call this perfect?"
Pandro looked at his embarrassing photo, clearly a bit exasperated.
"Here's an egg for you, don't be mad." Ian pulled out three Curled Wing Demon eggs, handing one to Pandro. Morgan had only told him not to give Pandro any snacks.
"Curled Wing Demon?"
Pandro's keen eye was remarkably sharp.
"I want to hatch them here." Ian sneakily stuffed all the snacks into Ariana's hands. Giving Pandro an egg wasn't just to appease him. Ian's small scheme was to secure a free hatchery worker, after all, adventurers often end up becoming masters of Fantastic Beasts.
"There's no way to hatch eggs here; life doesn't belong here." Pandro shook his head, responding as if Ian had been struck by lightning, since his "endless offspring" plan collapsed before it even began.
"Didn't the Golden Apple grow here?" Ian asked, still slightly unwilling to give up, and was surprised to see Pandro also showed an uncertain expression.
"Yes, the Golden Apple is indeed a miraculous exception," he said while gazing at the egg of the Curled Wing Demon thoughtfully, "Perhaps we should plant the eggs in the ground?"
What an outrageous idea!
"Eggs are meant to be hatched!"
Ian was utterly speechless.
However, Pandro was eager to try.
"How do you know if you don't try?"
He spoke while already running to find a shovel nearby.
What else could one expect from a Swordsman, his actions were swift. If Ian hadn't quickly seized the tool from his hand, the three Curled Wing Demon eggs might have soon ended up buried.
"Maybe we should try hatching them first..."
Ian felt that Pandro's words couldn't take them wholly at face value. Though this guy might once have been that legendary figure, now he was mostly in an unreliable and memory-faded state.
"Trust me, no life can be born here." As Pandro spoke, he walked under a tree, climbed up swiftly, and extracted a bird egg.
"I've found this egg many years ago. Do you see any signs of hatching?" The egg in Pandro's hand, covered in fiery patterns, clearly looked extraordinary.
"Didn't you just pluck that from the nest?" Ariana, munching on chocolate biscuits, sat on a bench and looked at Pandro with eyes filled with curiosity and a hint of peculiarity.
"I have the birds here help me incubate for me wherever I go, I let other birds incubate; did you expect me to sit on it myself?" As he handed the egg to Ian, Pandro grabbed the other two Curled Wing Demon eggs from him, "Perhaps you can hatch it in your world, but these Curled Wing Demon eggs must remain for my experiments."
That said,
Pandro took up the shovel and headed under the tree.
"What kind of egg is this?"
Ian felt the egg in his hand was extremely warm. He noticed that the pattern Ariana had "carved" into the back of his hand previously was now shining again from concealment.
Just like when he had first encountered Fox.
"Phoenix!"
Ian found the answer himself.
"Ariana, he must have stolen your Phoenix." Ian turned to Ariana, immediately accusing, as he remembered every member of the Dumbledore family possessed their own Phoenix.
"I don't have a Phoenix."
Ariana shook her head. Hearing Ian's speculation made her curious as she came over, still holding a snack, "Is this really a Phoenix egg?"
She clearly had never seen a Phoenix egg either.
"Yes, a Phoenix. I've been trying to hatch it for ages, just wanted to raise one that, after being eaten, would regrow – an endless supply."
"But it consumed so much of my time without ever emerging."
Pandro kept digging a pit madly beneath the tree.
Ian rolled his eyes, "The dead don't need to eat."
He thought Pandro was even more ridiculous than Aurora.
"The dead may not need to eat, but that doesn't mean they can't eat." Pandro earnestly responded, and his pit-digging speed was indeed incredibly fast.
In the blink of an eye, he had dug a huge hole.
"Perhaps because you intended to eat it, that's why it refuses to hatch. Phoenixes are very clever." Ariana also felt Pandro's intention was outrageous.
"Are you really going to plant the Curled Wing Demon eggs in the ground?" Ian saw Pandro putting the Curled Wing Demon eggs into the pit, then started filling it with soil one shovel after another.