Battle Of The Brothers

A week had passed since my grandfather's funeral and I lay awake in bed. Remus lay next to me with an arm draped across my bare chest. He had fallen asleep a while ago and I was too afraid to disturb his sleep by moving his arm off me, but I knew had to do it if I wanted to have the chance to leave without being noticed. I had to look for the one thing that could secure our victory. Slowly I started to shift Remus's arm off my chest and I slid out of bed. I started to wonder if I should conjure a werelight but decided against it as it would risk waking Remus, so I searched for some clothes in what moonlight there was and went to leave. I paused at the bedroom door as I considered leaving a note for Remus to let him know I was out and would be back as soon as I could. I discarded the thought and left without a trace hoping that I would be back before anyone noticed my absence or started worrying. As I passed through the lounge I picked up the letter from my grandfather that was addressed to me. Sarah had found it in a chest in my grandfather's house while sorting through his stuff. In the letter were the directions to the location of which I hoped I would find what I needed. The directions and descriptions were vague but not too vague so they wouldn't be too hard to follow. As I stepped out of the front door the warm summer air greeted me with a gentle breeze. I quickly shut the door and I made my way through the village. In my urgency, I didn't notice the silhouette standing at my bedroom window, watching me as I kept to the shadows while heading north.

It had taken me an hour's worth of flying to get to the area of which I needed to search for what I had come for. I landed in a small clearing I noticed from above that was just big enough for me. I quickly changed back to my human form, filling the clearing with a soft white glow. I conjured a werelight and took in my surroundings. I knew I was close, I could feel it. I turned around on the spot I stood while trying to figure out which way I would have to go. I took out my grandfather's letter and read over it again. It mentioned the clearing of which I assumed was the one I was standing in, it also mentioned a small cave of which should be nearby but the letter didn't give any clear indication if it was to the north, south, east or west. It just said to follow my gut instincts. So I put the letter away and started to slowly turn on the spot to see if my instincts would tell me anything. After the second or third rotation I felt a slight pull around my stomach as if someone had tied an invisible rope to it and had gently tugged on it, telling me where I should go. I was facing north-east and so I took in a deep breath and started walking. It didn't take me long to find the small cave. The rocks forming the entrance were covered in moss and the air was slightly moist. As I started approaching the dark entrance to the cave, a blue flame appeared in mid-air a few feet within the cave. I could just make out someone's face just behind the blue flame but couldn't recognise it due to the flicker of the flame. Shadows danced across the person's face as they made their way towards me. And so it wasn't until they were out of the cave that I realised it was my uncle. He was smiling like his birthday had come early.

"Nice to finally see my wonderful nephew. It's been a while since I last saw you. Though we weren't on good terms when we parted."

I stood there and glared at him.

"Aren't you going to give your uncle a hug?" Bartholomew chuckled.

I kept quiet as I tried to think of what I could do. I hadn't brought Dragonbane with me as it was pretty much useless for the time being and all I had in my arsenal was my Griffin form.

"Oh come now, you can't stay quiet. It was rude of you not to greet me in the first place."

I continued to glare at him as I spoke. "Just shut up you freak. I have no reason to talk to you."

Bartholomew feigned surprise.

"Oh really, well then I'm sure you won't need what you came here for. And it'll be such a sad loss too." He smiled with a sick humour.

All the hate that I had felt towards my uncle the day I was suspended from school came flooding back to me. My body started glowing just before I started to change but before I could an invisible force threw me back and held me up against a tree, leaving me slightly dazed. The glowing faded quickly as my change was disrupted and my werelight went out.

"How dare you think you'll be able to change in hope to defeat me?"

Hatred and frustration poured off my body. I really wanted to hurt him in any way that I could but the invisible force stopped me. Xavier's warning about my wish of having telepathy having consequences came back to me. I realised then that my uncle having telekinesis was most likely the consequence. And to be honest I thought it was unfair but there was nothing I could do about it. I then heard bushes rustling to my right. It was barely audible but I wasn't mistaken with what I heard. Bartholomew showed no signs of hearing anything and so within seconds a light grey blur tackled Bartholomew to the ground. With his concentration broken I dropped to the ground, finally able to move. I looked up and saw Bartholomew on the ground propping himself up on his elbows and he was face to face with a light grey wolf of which was growling deep in its throat. I knew it was Remus. At first I was annoyed but the annoyance gave way to relief at the fact that someone had come to help. Bartholomew looked annoyed that he had been interrupted though I could tell he wasn't ready to face the both of us. He slowly backed away from Remus before changing to a large bat-like creature with rotting flesh and flew off. Remus walked over to me and changed back to his human form. He looked at me with slight worry.

"Are you alright Toby?"

I nodded. "Yea, I'm fine. Most likely a little bruised but I should be fine."

"I'm just glad you didn't get hurt badly." He smiled a little.

"How did you find me?"

He looked a little guilty. "I…uh…followed you. I woke up without you next to me and your spot on the bed was still slightly warm so I figure you had only just gotten out of bed and I got up in time to watch you sneak off through the village from the bedroom window. I decided to get ready and follow you in case you needed some help."

"Thanks. I should have told you about what I planned to do but I didn't want anyone to know and I thought I would be back in time before anyone would get worried. But with the way things were going I probably would have taken longer than expected if you hadn't followed me here."

"It was difficult keeping up with you but I managed it…so why did you come to this cave?"

"If you follow me you'll find out soon enough." I smiled at Remus before conjuring a werelight once again and heading into the cave.

Within half an hour we came across what I had been looking for though it felt like it had taken longer. The Lokrium was white and it gave off a soft glow. There was a whole lot of it scattered throughout the cavern. I took out the letter written by my grandfather to see how the Lokrium would be "mined" in some sense. No pickaxe could even damage Lokrium so one would be useless. The letter explained was that I could just "pick" the amount of Lokrium I needed as if I was "picking a flower or herbs". I went to one of the Lokrium veins and a found a decent amount. I placed a hand on the Lokrium and willed it to part with the Lokrium ore vein. It took a bit of time but I was finally able to take a large chunk of Lokrium, about the size of my fist, from the ore vein. I stood up and turned to Remus.

"Right, I should have the right amount. We should head back now."

Remus stared at the Lokrium that surrounded us before resting his gaze on the chunk I held in my hand.

"Is that Lokrium? A special type of gem that only we can get?"

I nodded. "I suppose so. Now let's go."

I handed the Lokrium to Remus and led the way back out of the cave. As soon as we were back out in the fresh air I changed into my Griffin form and waited to allow Remus to climb onto my back before becoming airborne and heading back towards the village.