Animals can't uphold the law (Aidan)

[Deleted]

Deva knew she was being too harsh in her judgement of the druids. They were trying their best but she'd been burried in work ever since the barrier had been broken. She was stressed, hadn't slept enough in over a week, was overworked and by now it was all far too simple to just blame the druids for being unable to keep their barrier in tact. It was a grumpy thought springing from a tired mind and Deva didn't really mind all that much, but druids never really had the reputation of law abiding if they were any laws that were not their own. They were not a full on danger but they certainly brought a risk to the magical world that could lead to prosecution of wizarding kind if they were not careful to contain this. So today she was out in order to set up extra security measures on some of the islands after some sightings.

To make matters worse, she was to be joined with a druid in case one of their creatures happened to be around and wanted to attack her. She didn't mind field work but this was more dangerous than she'd signed up for. She checked her watch in some annoyance and wondered what was keeping her partner for the day. That was when she saw a relatively young redhead approach. That was almost certain to be the druid. She gave him a bit of a stern look. "You're late." She noted with slight irritation. It was only a few minutes but Deva wasn't in the best mood to begin with. She grabbed her wand and looked at him. "Did they give you the outline I sent four days ago? I had a meticulously planned set up for all the required temporary charms and spellwork required to keep your animals safe." She said, and it was clear that a slight tone of accusation hadn't managed to escape her voice. "I'm Deva di Angelo, by the way. I'm part of the invisibility task force."

Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn

[Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn]

14 October 2025

Aidan wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing here, but he was excited to be doing it! The tragedy of the big-time creature escape was still fresh on everybody’s minds, but now the Council had put together some sort of plan of action to get them back. Aidan didn’t really know the details because, well, he wasn’t an Elder, but he had faith in their leadership. Word had gone around Hy-Brasil that druids were sometimes needed to assist in tracking them down, and it hadn’t taken long for his family to put his name forward – Aidan’s love for magical creatures wasn’t exactly a secret.

He wasn’t particularly thrilled with his partner-to-be because – well, did he even need to say because? The Ministry was a headache and, when they weren’t being meddlesome, were usually incompetent. But Aidan would do anything to see all the creatures back in Hy-Brasil and safe, so he wasn’t planning on saying anything. He’d been told to meet this Ministry lackey at a certain time, but he didn’t wear a watch so he was sort-of approximating it. Considering the sun’s position in the sky, he’d done a fairly good job – but he could still see a grumpy woman waiting for him in the near distance. As he got closer, he could see she actually looked extremely tired (as well as being grumpy) and a little disheveled as a result. That last fact didn’t bother Aidan much because disheveled was a common look for him. Like now – he was still wearing the clothes he’d been wearing at the reserve, and he’d clearly been around some rowdy hippogriffs recently, judging by the grass stains on his clothes and dirt under his fingernails.

She observed that he was late, but he didn’t even have the opportunity to open his mouth to respond before she started talking again. Aidan laughed sheepishly as she asked about the outline. His English was still terrible and heavily accented, so he took care as he chose his words. “Yes, I have it,” he said as he pulled out the large collection of papers. He hadn’t been very careful with it, and there were papers bent and folded in all directions and covered with some questionable stains. “I start to read it, but…” he shrugged before continuing, “you use many big words I do not know and I was bored.” He waved a hand through the air dismissively before stuffing the papers back into his bag. “But it will be okay!” he assured her with a smile and a nod. “We do not need so much paper to find the animals. We use our guts!”

There was some sort of tone to her words but, whatever it was, he’d missed its meaning. He smiled brightly at her again and introduced himself. “I am Aidan! From the Ó Cuinn family. Your Ministry’s help is…” he stopped to think of the right word. “…appreciated?” he finally tried. It was a bit of a lie, but he wanted to be nice, so that didn’t make it a bad lie. In fact, he thought it was very polite of him to thank her for accompanying him on a task the druids would surely get done!

@deva

[Deleted]

This was going to be an utter disaster. He clearly had only skimmed the paperwork, was a dirty looking sort of feller that didn't look like he cared about doing anything as quickly and efficiently as possible and despite the fact he looked and acted like a sweetheart, everything he said and did so far brought Deva to the brink of exasperated tears. She subtly tried to hide her hands as she pinched herself hard in hopes of waking up. The pain was real, but it didn't save her from this particular nightmare. She blinked a few times and her face fell in pure disappointment and dread. He'd used her careful work and planning as a tablecloth by the looks of it! Then he started mentioning guts to find the animals, which made it abundently clear that he didn't even realise the true purpose. She didn't want to find any magical creatures to tear her to shreds! She wanted to go home and take a very long hot bath after securing the area with all the needed charms and spells and hexes to keep both the muggles and the wizarding world safe.

Every bit of hope she'd had was gone now. This entire thing was going to be a disaster. She closed her mouth into a thin line as she took a deep breath to regroup. "You do realise I'm with the invisibility task force and not the recapture units from the department of the regulation and control of magical creatures, right?" She asked a little carefully. His English sounded a little broken and in all honesty, she was dreading working with him. If she hadn't been worried about being attacked while securing the area she probably would have thanked him for coming and been on her way without him by now. Truth was that she needed him and well, she didn't like it. She tried her best to smile a little bit. "We mostly asked for help on this particular trip to ensure we can work safely without risk of being attacked while setting up the preventitive measures to keep muggles from accidentally coming across any of the escaped creatures. They wouldn't be able to reach them to shoot them with their guns and we don't risk exposure of the wizarding world." She hoped that was simple enough but the language barrier really made her want to cry. It had been quite a while since she'd been this stressed out at work but she was really nearing breaking point today. It wasn't pretty.

Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn

[Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn]

Aidan’s mouth dropped at the insanely fast stream of big and complicated words that came from Deva’s mouth. He was sure that if she said each word individually, he would know what it meant, but the fact that it had come out all at once and in such quick succession meant he was scrambling after-the-fact to pick out familiar-sounding words. He knew ‘invisibility’ since she’d said it earlier, although he couldn’t imagine the context of why it was being used now. He knew the creatures department of the Ministry that she was talking about – and their backwards attitudes on just about everything. And he knew she’d mentioned something about Muggles. Now he was wondering if the invisibility had something to do with the Muggles, although he couldn’t be sure.

Since it was a word he knew and she’d said it before, he decided to try and tackle the invisibility first. The words that came right after were new, so he tried to sound it out based on what he remembered. “Yes, I see,” (lies, but okay), “you work with the invisibility fast force. But I not understand. Your Ministry needs many people to invisible things? And why you need to be fast?” His face took on a contemplative expression as he considered everything he knew. Aidan was here to work with creatures, but she was here to work with invisibility. Perhaps the two were related – perhaps she wanted him to work with invisibility too! He was quite good at Disillusionment Charms and he didn’t even need his wand for it. There was nobody else here except the two of them, but maybe the invisibility was related to getting the creatures back. A trap to lull them into a false sense of security?

He smiled at her again now that they were on the same page. “Very good,” he said with a nod. “We will invisible things and find creatures. I see earlier some were here before us. This good start?” He didn’t quite know how to explain what he’d seen but he was eager to get started – and not spend so much time standing so still.

@deva

[Deleted]

Things were not improving. He claimed to understand in English broken enough that she couldn't help but wonder if he even understood half of what she'd said. His words didn't really make things better. Her stress levels were out of this world by now and she just wanted a relaxing cup of tea and the whole week off. That wasn't possible at all of course. Not with how much there was left to do in the world. She took a very deep breath, both to calm herself and to try to avoid fainting out of pure stress. She decided to speak a little slower from that moment on, as the speed at which she communicated probably didn't help either. "I hide our world, the magical world, from muggles. My job is to make sure that we are invisible to muggles to protect us and our creatures from them." Surely a druid would understand that, right? They were once almost destroyed and their population had been decimated by muggle cruelty.

She then took another deep breath to keep her composure. "They have metal weapons called guns. They fire small metal pebbles faster than the eye can see. Because they go so fast they could seriously hurt and probably kill many of the creatures of the island. My goal is to set up a barrier to keep muggles away from the creatures. You've been asked to make sure no creatures attack me or my crew while we set up the charms. Can you do that?" She wanted to cry and was far closer to it than she wanted to admit. This entire thing was frying her nerves so utterly she spent more time attempting to keep her composure than anything else. She took another breath as she quickly looked around. "If we see any creatures and you can safely bring them away then I'll help with that if I can but I know precious little about magical creatures. I just want to make sure everybody is safe." Now all she had to do was make sure she wouldn't cry. That was all. No biggie right?

Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn

[Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn]

Aidan’s eyes were wide with sparkling wonder as Deva explained exactly what she did at the Ministry. She’d started to slow down and each word came out crystal clear and in the exact right place in the sentence it should be. And what a mission! A whole branch of the Ministry to maintain the separation between the magical and non-magical worlds? To protect everything magical from exposure and exploitation by Muggles? That sounded beautiful! This was the Ministry, after all, so there was probably some degree of bungling the job anyway with blissful ignorance. But the job itself was…well, magical. Aidan nodded approvingly as he understood, at least, what she was supposed to be doing here.

But he got a little nervous when she started talking about Muggle weapons. He clutched the strap of his bag nervously and made an uncomfortable sound at the back of his throat. Aidan knew such things existed, of course. But they sounded scary – the kind of stuff a villain might use in a druid children’s tale. Deva looked like she might cry as she explained he was here for protection, and Aidan nodded rapidly in case that might help prevent any tears. To further that cause, he gave Deva a toothy grin and hugged her warmly, twining his arms around her for a second before pulling back.

“Safe is good!” he finally said, hoping between the hug and his positive words that he was giving off some sort of good vibes. Tears were a no-go today, and ideally Muggles too. “But you will see,” he began, wagging a finger at her playfully, “you not need protection. They scared, not angry.” Sometimes creatures could lash out when they were particularly agitated or provoked – it didn’t happen so much on Hy-Brasil, and especially not against druids, but sometimes with the less-educated visitors. And while there was no reason to be afraid of a magical creature, showing that fear often did more harm than the alternative of adopting a soothing composure. But it wouldn’t be a problem because Aidan wasn’t afraid of anything they might find today and he was prepared to soothe any creatures right back to their island paradise.

Speaking of – he tried to phrase what he’d seen another way so Deva could understand. It was always a limitation to have to speak someone else’s language, but what else could they do? “I saw…” Aidan trailed off as he looked for the right word. He made a motion with his hands, pressing one into the other like a unicorn might paw at the ground. “…footsteps,” he finished uncertainly. Not the right word but good enough to paint a picture.

@deva

[Deleted]

This guy was nothing short of unbelievable. Maybe not in a bad way but he was weird. He listened and then out of nowhere just decided to hug her? Had he never heard of the concept of personal space and workplace conduct? Well, considering he was a druid, probably not. This was likely to be normal there, but it really threw Deva off. Partially because it felt good and very awkward to her at the same time. This just wasn't the way to handle strangers, least of all in a work environment. She awkwardly petted his back because she had no idea what else to do.

He said she didn't have to be scared considering the animals were probably scared rather than angry. It didn't do anything to comfort her or calm her nerves. Especially when they felt cornered animals of any variety could be highly dangerous, even more so due to their unpredictable natures when cornered. She smiled a little awkwardly. "As long as we both get out of his experience unharmed it's all fine by me." She said, glad to have at least that part of her chest. Not getting harmed was the goal. At least muggles were easy to deal with.

He'd seen footsteps though. Deva figured with his pause and the fact his English wasn't too great he actually meant something different but the closest he could get was footsteps. Good enough, she could work with that. She nodded. "Of which creature? Could you tell? Or were they human?" She almost hoped they were creatures. "Although honestly, if you mention anything overly dangerous then I am calling back up because this wasn't supposed to be a dangerous area." She noted, although perhaps a little faster than was wise. Still, it was a good enough place to start, she guessed. Although she hoped he didn't plan to follow the tracks. "The first post for the spell is that direction." She said, pointing towards the west. "Do you think it's safe there?" At this point it was far better to rely on his expertise so she could do her own job. They were supposed to be a team to join strengths after all. It shouldn't be a huge deal that such a thing came with challenges... even if it killed her a little bit.

Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn

[Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn]

Deva looked nervous, but Aidan didn’t really expect any different from her. Magical creatures were largely misunderstood by the world, and they never got treated right by most witches and wizards who couldn’t look past the dangers. Sure, it was always better to avoid being bitten by a Fire Crab or learn how to dodge a Bowtruckle’s sharp appendages. And yeah, being around a centaur herd too long had its potential pitfalls. But these creatures were beautiful in magical and unique ways, and there was so much to know about them from how they lived to the lessons they had to offer. There were a few non-druids who understood that – Aidan’s coworkers at the nature reserve did, after all – but mainland society and the Ministry kept an unfortunate distance from what they didn’t understand, and often as such labeled them as inferior. It was such a backwards way of thinking, which was why it was just better for Aidan to keep his expectations low whenever duty called him away from Hy-Brasil.

But he didn’t like the thought that Deva might be unnecessarily scared, so he wanted to do his best to reassure her that there was nothing to be scared of – and if he could convince her that creatures could be harmless and beautiful, well that didn’t seem so bad. Deva rapidly fired off a few questions about the tracks, and Aidan laughed as she asked if they were human. “Not human,” he confirmed, shaking his head amusedly. This part was easier to communicate to her, at least, because it constituted things that he talked about all the time at work in English. “I see…tentacles,” Aidan said, testing out the difficult word as he described what he’d seen before coming to meet Deva, “…so I think murtlap. They like water, so I not surprised they find this island. But more than one here. Definitely more than one.” Aidan usually saw murtlaps travel in groups anyway, and there had been at least three if the volume of tracks and tentacles could be believed. Which, they could, because Aidan could confidently say he knew more about murtlaps than he did about Britain.

Aidan looked automatically in the direction Deva was pointing at, although he cocked his head in thought. He hadn’t really taken a good look at her plan, but the tracks were in a different place than the one where she apparently wanted to start. He was very excited at the thought of finally being on the right track to recover some creatures and bring them back to Hy-Brasil, where they belonged. He was less excited at the thought of going off in a different direction to make things invisible (although that could be fun too). She asked if he thought that direction was safe, and Aidan shrugged. “Maybe.” He bulldozed ahead before Deva could say anything else. “But murtlaps over there!” He pointed back in the direction he’d originally come from, before continuing, “We should go fast before they…spread out.” Aidan made a wide motion with his hands to demonstrate what he meant that the group might separate and spread out from each other, which would definitely make the task of recovering them that much more difficult. He said cheerfully, “Let’s go fast!” smiling at Deva before abruptly turning and beginning to walk towards where he had last seen the tracks. They couldn’t have passed by more than an hour or two ago, which meant it was highly likely they were still in the area. Aidan was already looking forward to seeing them and making sure they'd receive plenty of love and care and attention before being sent back home.

@deva

[Deleted]

Not human, tentacles. Murtlaps. As if that was supposed to help reassuring her. They were not highly dangerous most of the time but that didn't mean she was about to underestimate them. Care for magical creatures hadn't exactly been her best subject. That had been charms and by far. To make things even worse it was a small pack of murtlaps, which meant they'd be a lot harder to control and contain if they got spooked and since she hadn't gotten the time for the protective charms yet it sounded like a very inconvenient kind of thing to her. This wasn't where she'd wanted today to lead but she could deal with it. It couldn't be too hard. All they had to do was establish the barrier before the murtlaps......

She blinked a few times as the boy just ran off. She didn't know how else to put it. He simply told her where the creatures had gone and raced after them. Had he understood nothing of what she'd explained about their purpose? Did he just not care? Was he trying to make her job impossible? She stood nailed to the floor as she felt the stress flood her. It was too much to handle. She'd been working overtime for month because people couldn't follow simple instructions and not engange muggles while sneezing fire. She'd been attempting to keep up with mountains worth of paperwork now that sightings of magic had increased and just in the last two ro three days the numbers had increased exponetially. She could barely even locate the files she needed and the few temps that the ministry had hired were consuming so much of her time with questions that she barely had any left to do her own job. Adding this to that mess? They thought it had been a good idea for her to take a break from paperwork and do a field assignment but it seemed misfortune followed her. She couldn't even get this done effectively.

She told herself she wasn't going to break down but she knew it was useless. This was the metaphorical straw to break her back. She was completely worn out and exhausted and as the ginger haired druid disappeared from her view she collapsed, sinking to the ground as her wand fell beside her uselessly. She took a deep breath, as a last restort to attempt to steady herself and avoid crying. It was all in vain of course and within moment she found herself crying softly into her hands. She just needed a moment to relax! Just a little moment to not work or think of work or be involved with work. She'd just let this out and then be on her merry way again. All she had to do was get through today. One day at a time, although one minute at a time felt far more accurate by now. She was exhausted and knew that she couldn't even stand on her feet anymore if she tried. Just a small break, possibly some chocolate and then she'd be okay again.... she just needed one moment.....

Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn
I'M SO SORRY LITTLE CINNAMON ROLL!!! It's not your fault, she's just terribly overworked >.<

[Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn]

Aidan tended to tunnel-vision when there were creatures involved, and it was hard to think about anything else when the subject was able to so thoroughly fill his mind. It got worse when there was something not right that needed to be fixed – like if they were sick or injured or needed any kind of help. Since the collapse of the barrier, Aidan had found it extremely difficult to focus on anything else when he knew that there were creatures that were in trouble, or at least very far from home. When he’d been told by the Council that he’d be helping a Ministry worker recover some of the creatures, it had been all he could think about for days, excited that he could be doing something to help given his background in both magical creatures and fair knowledge of the mainland compared to the average druid. And then, spotting signs of murtlaps on his way to meet said Ministry worker, it had filled Aidan with a surge of urgency that was incredibly unusual for the otherwise very laidback boy.

He was impulsive, but he usually wasn’t so sloppy. He’d gone walking back in the direction he came from, expecting that Deva would just follow. She seemed to know a thing or two about invisibility, and she must be very talented if her Ministry had wanted to hire her, but there was no doubt that Aidan was the expert here on creatures. Yeah, maybe there’d be a protest or two, but he knew there would be nothing too unexpected that could happen with the creatures that he wouldn’t be able to handle. But when Deva didn’t catch up, first immediately and then after a minute, Aidan first looked over his shoulder then stopped completely to turn around and cock his head confusedly at her absence. He hadn’t gone far, so he could see that she was still in the same spot they’d been in a minute ago, but she wasn’t standing anymore. In fact, she had sunk to the ground and was now crying into her hands, wand discarded off to the side.

Oh no – no no no, this was not good at all. Aidan hesitated as he glanced in the direction he was now sure he would find murtlaps if he tracked them long enough, practically waiting for him, before steeling his resolve and tiptoeing back in Deva’s direction. It occurred to him that she probably didn’t want to see him, so he didn’t hesitate to transform into his dog animagus form before padding up to Deva cautiously. He sniffed at her discarded wand before turning the full force of his puppy dog eyes on her (he seemed to get away with so much more as a dog than as a human).

People always seemed to respond to dogs better– maybe they felt less judged, less vulnerable, or just not put on-the-spot to respond. But he’d seen otherwise closed-off witches and wizards willing to put aside some of the barriers and just be when he was in his dog form. At the very least, everyone seemed more amenable to hugs, which had been something Deva had looked uncomfortable at earlier while he’d been human. Aidan closed the distance between them, and clumsily placed a paw on her knee as he gave a whine from the back of his throat (the movement was clumsy because sometimes it was hard to get his dog body to do things his human mind wanted).

When he was sure she wouldn’t pull away, Aidan pulled himself into her lap and settled down in what seemed to him a very clear invitation. Although for what was up to her – a hug, a conversation (as one-sided as it might be), or just to sit in silence for a while. He’d done all that and more before for druids, usually children who needed some comfort, and he could see Deva had already been having a bad day before meeting him. Aidan still wasn’t quite sure what he’d done wrong, but he felt terrible that something he’d done had made her cry. He could complain about the Ministry all he liked, but at the end of the day their employees were just people and as human as he was (relatively speaking at the current moment). And it was like he’d always known – he hated seeing a creature in pain. Especially if there was something he could do about it. He made himself comfortable before turning his begging face on her. More information on why she was crying? Forgiveness that it had gotten this far? He really was sorry.

@deva

[Deleted]

Deva hadn't really been paying any attention since her little break down. She just needed to let the stress out for a moment and the utter despair that nothing was going right. Everything was messy and she was hoping to catch a break. The druid wasn't looking too helpful in that department and only made things worse. Still she could tell he had a good heart and didn't do any of it on purpose. He had a very clear goal in mind and didn't let himself be dissuaded from following it. She could respect it but right now it was driving her completely insane. She felt like she lost all control over the situation and she didn't like it. She wasn't really obsessed in keeping things in order but this was too much chaos and not enough control for her.

So when the sounds changed and a dog appeared out of nowhere, Deva wasn't quite happy to see it. She knew many druids were capable of changing into animal form. She'd had co-workers complain about those things endlessly. Apart from that she wasn't much of a dog person to begin with. She had nothing against them, just nothing in favour of them either. She liked birds much better and had an aquarium at some point but apart from that her environment was usually preferred clean in a way that didn't match too wonderfully with pets. So she looked at the dog after a moment, wiping her eyes dry. It felt really strange to consider it might be a person rather than an animal and it didn't really help her comfort levels. She regained her composure and spoke to the dog. "It'll be fine. I've just been under a lot of pressure lately. I think I'll ask my boss if somebody else can take over because I'm clearly not handling the job very well." Sometimes it was better to admit defeat. This seemed to be one of those times. All she had to do was get a memo to her boss and she could go back to her regular paperwork, with a bit of luck.

Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn

[Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn]

Deva seemed to be more inclined to chat while he was in dog form, but didn’t seem to appreciate any physical contact. That was a disappointment, and a bit odd to Aidan who came from a very physically affectionate family, but he clambered off her anyway and circled an interesting spot in the ground a few times before sitting down. He cocked his head as she spoke, explaining that she hadn’t been feeling good lately and she’d probably call her boss. It sounded like she didn’t usually go into the field to work – another interesting yet odd tidbit of information to Aidan, who spent all his time outdoors. He whined at her softly, if only because she was being very hard on herself and he suspected most of the pressure she’d mentioned was coming from herself.

Maybe part of the stress was because she was alone. Aidan didn’t know anything about the Ministry’s standards about sending out employees, but he knew druids often did things together. Whether their work involved magical creatures, or Herbology, or even venturing out into the rest of the magical world, it was rare to see druids by themselves. He transformed back into a human and sat sprawled on the ground, legs extended in front of him. “Job much harder alone,” he said with a thoughtful nod. His face brightened as he thought of an idea, and he pulled his bag in front of him to rifle through it. As might be expected, it was extremely messy and he had to pull out several things. Deva’s outline, a pair of dragon-hide gloves, and several bagged treats for fairies before he finally found his half of the two-way mirror set.

The other mirror was in Hy-Brasil with his family, and it was how they communicated so quickly. His sister had the mirror most days, but Aidan could expect his mother to hold onto it while she was in class. “I call family?” he offered excitedly. He waved his hand in the direction of the murtlaps. “They send…erm, send druids to murtlaps. Then we go invisible things!” Aidan shot Deva a wide grin at his ingenious solution. Then it shifted slightly into something softer. He would have liked to be able to check on the murtlaps himself but – well, nobody could do things alone and it was silly to try. “This is good?” He knew sometimes you had to reach out first, even if it wasn’t what you wanted to do, because it was the right thing to do.

@deva

[Deleted]

Where Deva was organised to a fault, this guy seemed to almost be her exact opposite. She was reserved in her affection towards other people, he was not. She kept everything tidy and meticulously so, he seemed to be very chaotic. It was hard to imagine a worse match when it came to compatibility. He seemed a go with the flow kind of feller where she was a strategic planner, down to the last detail. In part it was why she enjoyed her job so much, there was very little she couldn't prepare for. She didn't really like surprises a lot, while some surprises were not as bad she she might have imagined them to be. She could handle them perfectly as long as she didn't see them coming and knew there was something ahead she couldn't hope to prepare for. It seemed as though there was very little that Aidan did actually prepare in advance.

While his offer brought her rest she still sent a memo to her boss to update him on the situation. She realised the risk in that but she was far too tired to go on like this much longer. She needed a small vacation and hoped that her boss would be understanding. After that she nodded to Aidan. "That sounds good." She managed, but she was still far too exhausted. She'd keep going but her willpower was all but exhausted. It didn't really matter to her all that much in that moment, although she'd argue the opposite. She managed to scramble to her feet, resting against the tree for a brief moment before dusted herself off and checked her slightly crumpled plans. Maybe they could still salvage it. "There is a point about 500 yards from here that seemed like the most high risk location for muggle entry so I figured that would be the best place to start. If the muggles don't come here to begin with the creatures will be safe for an extended period of time. Hopefully enough for your people to gather them before the enchantments fail." She said with a kind smile. It really wasn't his fault but she wanted him to understand this was done with a long term plan in mind, even if those were not by default his nature. If her plans could be executed the druid community and her creatures had a longer time to be collected and restored before the muggles would cause trouble for them or the ministry. It seemed better that way. She'd spent almost a full week on meticulously planning on the details to ensure maximal efficiency. It was why she'd gotten this area assigned. It had been deemed high risk and her work had been formidable, according to her boss at least. Now all she needed to do was execute the plan. If he worked with her she was certain it could be a highly effective plan that would also reduce the time needed to search the creatures for the druids.

Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn

[Aidan Evander Ó Cuinn]

She seemed to like this new idea more than his previous ones, so Aidan nodded enthusiastically to show he understood. The general idea, at least, because her sentence still came out convoluted with a lot of difficult terminology for a non-native speaker. “I call now,” Aidan confirmed as he wiped some dirt off his mirror and walked a small distance away from Deva. It wasn’t so much for privacy, because he’d be speaking in Brasilic, but she’d done something similar while sending off a memo to her boss.

Aidan brightened as his mother answered and he began to chatter quickly in Brasilic as he explained the entire situation to her. Where he was, who he was with, and what he needed from Hy-Brasil. He wasn’t normally quite so chatty – barely stopping to breathe as he asked her to collect some druids to locate and return the murtlaps to the island – but it was an amazing feeling to just be able to speak in his native language without any difficulties or awkward pauses to find the right word. “Bye Ma,” he finished cheerfully in Brasilic as he pocketed the mirror, then trotted back over to join Deva. “They be here soon. So we wait,” he informed her with an excited smile at his face at the thought of seeing other druids. He visited home when he could, but never often enough.

As it turned out, they didn’t have to wait long at all. It made sense, because Hy-Brasil was small so it wouldn’t take long to assemble a small group of Magizoologists and deploy them to the Hebrides. And of course, druids were experts at anything magical, so traveling long distances wasn’t an issue. Eventually a small group of three druids (all ginger, naturally, and older than Aidan), approached the pair. After that, Aidan continued to speak rapidly in Brasilic to point out the tracks he’d seen earlier, and his estimation of where the murtlaps must be by now. He didn’t really take the time to introduce them to Deva, though, mostly because even though she was nice…well, she was a Ministry worker, and the Ministry wasn’t popular among most druids, especially the older generation.

After the trio left in the right direction, Aidan turned to Deva with a resolute nod. “Now we follow your plan?” he asked, patting his bag that held his (disheveled) copy of Deva’s outline. He was much less jittery now that he knew the murtlaps were going to be found and taken care of, and he smiled brightly at Deva. This meeting had been an unfortunate mash-up of two distinctly opposite styles, but they’d still managed a compromise. Not that he’d changed his mind about the Ministry – but he’d changed his mind about Deva, at least, and that was a start.

@deva
[End post Aidan!]