March 17th, 1888 - Dorset, England
Residence of Bella Scrimgeour

Eavan had owled ahead of time with her intentions to retrieve the mooncalf Fletcher had mentioned to her earlier in the day during their outing at the fair. Though it had been a little odd, Eva was trying not to put too much thought into it. Had this been a normal pick up, Eavan probably would not have felt so uneasy about the situation, but as it stood, she felt a little out of sorts. It was silly really, to worry about it, especially considering Flether's rather up-front compliments today. Jealousy had gotten them in trouble once and she was very determined not to let it happen again, but still...

So Eavan put on her big girl boots and took a large enough cage for the mooncalf, shrunk it down to fit in her expandable traveling bag and apparated to the address she'd been provided. She wound up in a dark corner of a side street, which was what she'd intended, considering the circumstances and hoped like hell that they had a private garden or the likes for Eavan to transport the mooncalf from. They could be rather skittish as well...

Too many what ifs; she was getting ahead of herself. She was being ridiculous and so as she rounded the corner, she pulled her cloak up around her and made her way to the address she'd been given. After  mentally berating herself for all of the thoughts she had running through her head, Eva put on her best professional magizoologist face and knocked on the door.

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Bella was not feeling well after having been at the Celtic Fair under the influence, and had now been informed via owl that the lady from the Podmore Zoo was coming to pick up Dymphna. To put it simply, she was not pleased. Dympha would be going to a new home — full of other mooncalves, for that matter — but she wouldn't be with her mummy.

Impatient as she was, Bella had been pacing the entrance hall to the Flint manor ever since the time frame for Miss MacKay's arrival had began (much to the dismay of the butler who awkwardly had to watch her). She'd considered going straight to the gardens where Dymphna had managed to dig herself a hiding hole, but Bella had attachment issues and she didn't need to deal with the emotional distress while recovering from her drunken outing.

When there was a knock at the door, Bella practically skid across the floor and arrived at the door just as it opened, effectively hushing the butler's former greeting. The woman at the door was older than she, and boasted the bright red hair that Bella thought looked especially pretty on her. So this was Mr. Langley's lady friend, eh?

"You've come to take her from me," said somberly, a pout falling on her already tired-looking face.

  

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Well, that wasn't the greeting Eavan had in mind when the door opened and the diminutive redhead tried not to look nearly as surprised as she was. The lass before her looked a little put out by the fact that Eva, the magizoologist was here to collect a wayward magical creature, but it only served to enforce her line of thought for the day; people were weird.

Eva managed to find her voice quickly, though had little else to say other than, "Yes?" Housing a mooncalf properly wasn't exactly easy and though Eva didn't know if this lass had any experience with magical creatures, she could only assume that keeping it in such a location as this would be even harder than necessary. "Mr. Langley mentioned it might be ill as well, it should be looked at by our resident creatures healer." Eva felt as though she ought not to have mentioned him, lest there be questions, but she figured she should give as much information as she could and hopefully would get as much as the woman before her had on the situation in turn.

"May I?" She motioned toward the door, wondering if she were to be invited in so she could do what she came to.

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Bella frowned. She'd known Mr. Langley was going to send Miss MacKay to take her little Dymphna, but not today. She wasn't in the proper emotional (or physical, for that matter!) state to give a sincere goodbye to her temporary pet.

Nevertheless, she resigned with a sigh and nodded.

"She's looked ill since I met her at the hospital," she explained. She motioned for the magizoologist (zookeper? She didn't know the woman's official title) to back up before stepping outside herself. "Dymphna— my mooncalf — has been staying in the gardens. It's quicker to go around the side; there's an easy entrance there."

  

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Eva's eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline as the lass explained the situation. She seemed to have formed a rather... quick attachment to the mooncalf in a short amount of time. Fletcher had said that it had randomly been in the hospital just this afternoon... Nevertheless, it wouldn't do to leave the creature here, in inexperienced hands, any longer than necessary.

Unsure of what to say on the matter, Eva followed the brunette toward the garden gate. "She's likely lonely, they're herd creatures, they get depressed when they are on their own for too long." Eva decided an explanation may help the situation along. Not to mention with absolutely zero backstory on this one, who was to say how long she'd been alone? It could be any myriad of issues that the creature was having and it really would be best if Eva got it back to the zoo proper soon, so Una could look at at it.  

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Care of Magical Creatures had never been a class that Bella believed she'd have needed into adulthood (she never was a huge lover of animals, having been raised to see them as property rather than companions), but it seemed the class may have saved her from having relinquishing Dymphna to the Podmore Zoological Gardens. Or maybe not, apparently.

"She won't die of loneliness, will she?" she asked, her voice sharply rising in alarm. She wasn't sure how a creature may die of loneliness, but some species — humans in particular — found ways to bring about their own lonely lives when they couldn't handle it. She hadn't suspected the mooncalf of being overly intelligent, but who knew?

  

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

This one was a little dramatic. Eva moved through the garden to where the mooncalf was curled up, staring sullenly at the moon itself. Frowning, Eva rather thought that, at first, glance, she looked alright, lonely certainly, but no other obvious health issues.

"Hi sweet girl," Eva knelt down and stroked the mooncalf down the nose and offered her a treat. "You don't look so bad, do you? A little malnourished perhaps, but nothing crazy. Whoever had you before this didn't know what they were doing did they?" Dymphna- as she was apparently named now- turned wide, doleful eyes up at Eva.

As she ran her hands over the mooncalf feeling for any internal injuries or wounds, Eva looked back at Miss Scrimgeour. "They can actually. I don't mean to be morbid, but some get so lonely that they stop eating and slowly waste away. Not all of them, but it has happened." Those ostracized from the herd for whatever reason, those who get lost. It wasn't common, but she knew it was possible.

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Was Miss MacKay trying to give Bella a panic attack? If so, it was working.

Calm turned to alarm, her eyes widening as she looked between the magizoologist and Dymphna the Apparently-Malnourished Mooncalf. She wasn't going to die was she? Had Bella been feeding her wrong? Keeping her in the wrong environment? Did she have only hours left? Would the new herd reject her?

[insert silent scream here]

"Merlin, you have to take her — and now! There's no time to waste!" she exclaimed.

  

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

Eva tried not to turn her wide eyes on the young brunette and instead focused on the mooncalf at hand. At this point the redhead didn't know who needed something to calm their nerves more, the animal or the woman. Sighing softly, Eva brushed her hands off on her skirt and turned a more practical expression toward Miss Scrimgeour. "She's fine," Eva said, completely confident that the mooncalf was not in any imminent danger.

"I would like to take her with me however, this evening, which I am prepared to do." Dymphna would be better almost immediately among her own kind and once Una looked her over and they got some nourishment into her, she would be absolutely wonderful. "Would you like to say goodbye?" From what she could tell, Miss Scrimgeour had become rather attached and though Eva was not sure how that happened in such a short time, she offered anyway. Eva had to set up the travel cage anyway so that she could get the process in taking her back to the zoo started.

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Bella wasn't so trusting of the magizoologist that she'd take her word without questioning, but she couldn't exactly say "yeah, well prove it!" now, could she? With a sigh of resignation, Bella leaned down to gently pat the hand of her short-term companion before stepping back. "Take good care of her. I'd love to come visit sometime."

  

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— MJ is MAGICAL —