"Hello!" Oleandra called out as she pushed open the door of a thatched cottage. "Anybody home? Helloooo?"
Following a beaten path that twisted and turned through the forest she had mysteriously woken up in, she eventually stumbled upon what looked like an abandoned settlement. But something was off— the flames in the fireplace were still roaring, and a half-eaten meal sat on the table. The food wasn't rotten either, which meant whoever had lived here couldn't have left long ago...
"Specialis Revelio!" said Oleandra, waving her mother's wand.
Nothing happened— though it wasn't clear whether the spell had failed or if whatever had spirited away the villagers hadn't been magical to begin with. Just to be sure, Oleandra activated her Mystic Eyes.
Several items around the cottage began to glow, suggesting that this might have been the home of some Wizarding family. Muggles might occasionally stumble across enchanted objects, but there wouldn't be this many in one of their homes.
"Appare Vestigium," Oleandra muttered.
Her wand coughed out a cloud of brown dust which settled on the ground, highlighting several sets of footprints. One of them led to the cellar…
"Avis!" Oleandra chanted, pointing her wand at the floor.
"Honk!"
A large, pink-billed greylag goose popped into existence and gave a loud honk of acknowledgment.
"Call if someone approaches the door, please."
"Honk."
With her guard goose now on alert, Oleandra unlocked the trapdoor leading to the basement and stepped through, closing it behind her. Darkness swallowed her as she descended the stairs, the air growing colder with each step. Good thing she could see in the dark…
Dirty-gold-coloured dust swirled around her feet as her first spell continued functioning, revealing a single set of footprints that led down the stairs and to a large barrel. Presumably, someone was hiding inside— but from what?
"You there, in the barrel," Oleandra called out. "Mind coming out for a quick chat?"
Silence.
"HONK!"
Oleandra sprinted back up the stairs and threw open the trapdoor, only to find a man dressed in primitive Wizard robes striking at her goose with a staff. The large bird hissed and flapped its wings defiantly, refusing to back down.
"Ingwaz!" Oleandra yelled, making a diamond with her left hand's thumb and forefinger.
The man suddenly found himself pulled to the ground by an irresistible force, and in a flash, he was face down, kissing the floorboards. He muttered a word in a language Oleandra's Translating Earrings couldn't decipher, and suddenly, green shoots sprouted from the floorboards and latched onto her ankles.
"Druids again?" Oleandra groaned in dismay. "Relashio!"
She felt like she was facing her sister when she was facing these Wizards. Always playing around with roots and branches and yanking her off her feet… but not if she could help it. With a quick Revulsion Jinx, the green vines coiling around her ankles were forced to let go.
Hearing the creaking of floorboards behind her, Oleandra turned around in a flash to find a middle-aged woman running at her with a staff in one hand and a meat cleaver in the other.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY HUSBAND!" the woman shrieked, waving both instruments wildly.
"Expelliarmus!" shouted Oleandra, Disarming the woman before she got too close. "Look, I apologise for entering uninvited, but I really just wanted to ask for directions!"
BANG!
Something hard and sharp slammed into Oleandra from behind, propelling her into the madwoman and sending them both crashing to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs. Oleandra's wand flew out of her grip and skittered away across the floor.
Her wits returned to her faster than the woman's, so Oleandra struck her in the jaw for good measure before pushing herself off the ground to see what had hit her earlier: the man was gone, replaced by a towering elk, bugling fiercely in her direction. Her Ingwaz from earlier was strong enough to hold down a man, but not a thousand-pound elk!
It seemed that being an Animagus was practically a requirement for becoming a Druid…
Before Oleandra could even begin to wonder how the Druid's antlers hadn't impaled her when he'd transformed just now, the elk charged at her. At the same time, Oleandra felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck— the woman had transformed into a weasel and tried to sink her fangs into her brainstem! Oleandra tried grabbing the small animal, but it disappeared into her robes the instant it saw her hand.
Enough was enough— she'd played nice because she was in the wrong for entering their house unbidden, but that didn't mean she'd let them kill her for it!
"Thursaz!" roared Oleandra, taking the full-body stance of the Giant's Strength Rune.
The force of the spell stopped the elk dead in its tracks, sending it crashing into the dining room table. The table splintered under the animal's weight, showering it in cutlery and piping hot porridge. With a gesture, Oleandra summoned water from a nearby pail and sent it up the animal's airways.
"Isaz!" Oleandra shouted.
The water flash froze inside the elk, stopping it from breathing in a rather painful manner. At the same time, Oleandra snatched the weasel from her robes and squeezed, forcing it to return to human form.
"Ingwaz!"
Knowing the middle-aged woman's Animagus form was too feeble to overcome her binding spell, Oleandra calmly walked over to where her wand had fallen and picked it up. She then returned to the woman and forcefully turned her head so that their eyes could meet.
"Legilimens!"
Images flooded Oleandra's mind.
She recognised the Druid who had captured her. Merwydd was his name.
In the woman's memories, the Druid Merwydd's lips moved silently. She had heard that the Lord of Cameliard, who had ordered Wanderer's capture, showed no interest in Oleandra and left her in the capable hands of his court wizard, Merwydd— who in turn, had brought her to his Druidic Circle— here.
The woman— or rather, the Witch— had also witnessed him bring the supposed Great Fairy into the settlement, binding her to a tree with nature spells and Ogham runes before departing to return to his duties as the king's court wizard. She had seen the Fairy's belongings, all but her sword, stored in the Druid's house.
Hours later, several Druids had ventured into the forest to check on the Fairy— and never returned. Soon after, news spread of a terrifying monster roaming the forest, prompting all clan members to hide.
And then, the Greater Fairy appeared on her doorstep, and the rest was history.
"See, was that so hard, now?" said Oleandra sarcastically, returning the ice shoved up the elk's snout to liquid form with a snap of her fingers. She then aimed her wand at the married couple. "Stupefy! Stupefy!"