15th June, 1894 — Water's Edge Pen

Marlena never panicked in the face of bones, living or otherwise, but she took several steps backwards and narrowed her eyes. She hadn’t imagined that, surely?

Were they supposed to move? She didn’t recall anything of the sort but it couldn’t just be the shadows down here that made it seem as though the hippopotamus had looked at her and Lena looked around for someone, anyone who might be able to help.

“Lottie!” She called out, gesturing for the other woman to join her. “Look there,” she pointed, positioning her old schoolmate by way of greeting. “Can you see it?”

Shalott Dempsey

Let's do !!

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Perhaps Lottie ought not to have come because every time she looked at the assembled creatures they looked increasingly foreboding, their bones yellowing, crumbling. And was it her imagination or were the small crocodile things looking as if she’d be a tasty snack to them? Perhaps the fair folk thought she’d be a good sacrifice?

A familiar voice from the past called her and Lottie followed Lena’s directions as she crossed closer. It wasn’t just the crocodiles, now the hippo looked positively starving. “Do you think he’ll charge?” Lottie asked, her voice devoid of any panic, only curiosity.

  

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Perfect Lottie vibes courtsey of MJ <3

The thought had not even occurred to her but now, mind whirling with possibilities, Lena took an unconscious step away from the skeleton and her hand twitched towards the pocket of her robe and the wand within.

“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Lena said, without conviction. She had been at the Ministry for some years now and was intimately acquainted with what some people considered entertainment. “Maybe we should leave though? I don’t know why I thought looking at bones would be that interesting in the first pla-there! It moved again,” Lena pointed sharply. “Did you see it this time?”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Yes, Lena was right. It did appear as if it might charge. But then her former classmate’s words stopped abruptly. She’d seen it this time. “Oh!”’ The skeletal hippo pushed its feet back in the first as if preparing to launch at them.

“We should leave.” Lottie agreed, her voice wisping gently over the bones to the other woman. She began to back up slowly, feeling she ought to maintain eyesight with the pile of bones, even if those eyes she was staring into were empty eye cavities that held no ability to look at her.

  

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Perfect Lottie vibes courtsey of MJ <3

Unnerved though she was Lena put herself between Lottie and the hippo, reaching behind to take the other girl’s hand. She was the Ministry official, after all, and she pulled out her wand as a precaution.

“Go slowly, if we run it might chase us down,” Lena said quietly, with as steady a voice as she could manage. It did not truly look like it meant them harm – things that did mean harm seldom looked as though they did – but wariness would hurt no one and cost nothing.

“I’ll keep an eye on it but you’ll need to lead me.”

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Lena’s hand captured her’s as the other woman stepped in front of her. Her directions made sense though and so Lottie began to move slowly backward, afraid to turn around herself, her hand still clasped with Lena’s. “Do you think it will charge if we speak?” She asked in a voice as soft as butterfly wings.

Oh, what a way to die - to explore the great adventure of death - to be trampled to death by a creature from whom death had already come. There was poetry in such a sentiment, Lottie decided, in the idea of death from death itself.

  

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Perfect Lottie vibes courtsey of MJ <3

The whisper on the back of her neck made her shudder and Lena considered that there were worse people to be trapped with, thought at least it was not her. Lottie was a little wispy, but she was a surprisingly reassuring presence behind her even if by speaking she-

“Fuck,” Lena mouthed, eyes like saucers as the skeletal hippo reared on hindlegs, taller and wider than Lena had imagined a thing made of bone could be. It was a terrible, paralysing sight to behold and squeezing Lottie’s hand she backed into her clumsily, sending them both flying to the ground.

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022