over the creek ∙ indy

To escape his flat that morning, he chose to go on an impromptu trip, leaving the busyness of the city behind to see the more rural parts of the country. Despite having lived in Germany for over a year, he hadn’t yet ventured out, sticking primarily to his flat, Cernunnos, and the places in between. He felt disappointed with himself for not taking more opportunities to explore. Though his studies kept him busy, they were hardly an excuse; the days off from school were too often spent visiting London, somewhere familiar. Instead of wallowing, however, he simply made the adjustment. Now, he wasn’t disappointed – he only felt excitement. When he’d stepped onto the stoop of his flat that morning, he had an eager anticipation for the day ahead.

Hiking had been nice. The air was crisp and the sky was clear. Above, the sun sat high, but a slow wind kept any intense heat at bay. Callum had gotten pretty far and was currently in a secluded area where the trees were abundant. He followed a dirt path, gravel crunching beneath his boots with each step. In the distance he heard low weeping and he paused to listen closely. Cal eyed the upcoming greenery with trepidation. Should he turn around? Prior to leaving, he’d brushed up on the creatures that inhabited the area, and as far as he could recall, nothing would put him in imminent danger so long as he remained careful. Cal hesitated, but the endangered cry beckoned to him. He trudged on.

- - - - - - - - - -

When he arrived at the flat, he hurried to his room and wrote Indy right away. In his rush, the scrawl differed from his usual structured penmanship, but he deemed it legible enough to send. His owl took the parchment and dutifully went on its way. Within an hour, the recipient of his letter was at the door. Cal answered with wild eyes, ushering his friend in quickly, jumping to explanations without a proper hello; they were close enough to forego unnecessary pleasantries.

“I… have something to show you.” His eyes flickered to his flatmate’s door, apprehension touching his features. It was unusually quiet, and he hoped that after being out so late – Cal had been woken by the sound of the front door opening early enough to know that he’d seized the night – his roommate was sleeping rather than eavesdropping. “Follow me.”

He turned around and opened the door to allow entry into the room. When Indiana came in behind him, Callum shut the door abruptly. Upon hearing the ‘click’, he grabbed his wand and performed a locking spell, then a muffling charm for good measure. By now, Indy had seen the reason behind his cautious demeanour; in the center of his bed, beside his rucksack and an old tome, sat a bear-like creature with an elongated snout and large paws, one of which appeared to be bent, obviously broken. A green floret sprouted from the center of its head.

“It’s an Arbear,” he explained, though he guessed that Indy already knew that. “I found it on my hike this morning. It was abandoned, probably the runt. And it’s hurt.” His eyebrows knitted as he watched the mewling creature. “I know I should’ve taken it to a healer, but I panicked. They’re not that common anymore. What’ll they do to it after they patch him up? Put him back in the wild? Keep him locked up behind a cage? I thought maybe I could help? And maybe you could, too.” A hand found the nape of his neck.

When Indiana had gotten Callum’s letter, he’d been deep in the family archives, helping Ashley with some research, but once he’d been finished up there the Tennessean had wasted no time in apparating over to Cal’s flat. While he’d known that whatever it was that Cal needed him for probably wasn’t anything serious, the wizard’s curiosity still managed to get the best of him as he curiously peered around the living room wanting to get a glimpse of whatever it was.

At seeing Cal’s unease Indiana furrowed his brow in a silent question, knowing by now that it was better to make as little noise as possible when Callum’s roommate was this quiet. It didn’t stop Indy from making a rude gesture in the direction of the closed door as he followed his friend into his room. Once Callum was done warding his room, Indy turned his attention to the creature on Cal’s bed and lit up immediately.

It was hard not to, when the Arbear was just a baby. He knelt down to put himself at eyelevel with the creature and nodded while Callum spoke. Leave it to Callum to find an Arbear on his morning run and end up bringing it back with him rather than taking it to a healer. “I don’t think I’ve seen one before, I’ve read about them though.” He studied the creature for a moment longer before continuing “I think we’ll be able to help him, Cal, you’re right..” He trailed off as he began to try and think of what they could do for the little Arbear. If one thing was certain it was that his friend had a heart of gold. “I’d be willing to bet someone at the Institute would know of a sanctuary that could help rehab him, and get him ready for re-release.” He added hopefully, not wanting his friend to worry too much “Might even be able to get yourself some credit if you helped out at the sanctuary, if it exists.”

Indiana swiped the baseball cap off of his head and tucked it bill-first into the back pocket of his jeans before running a hand through his hair “they like sweet things, right?” if he was telling the truth, Indiana had no idea what he was doing but if they could calm the Arbear down, they might be able to put together a makeshift splint.

While he waited for Callum to either agree or disagree, Indy busied himself with digging through the endless pockets in his backpack looking for sweets and anything that might work for a makeshift splint. After a moment, he tossed a package of powdered doughnuts over his shoulder in Cal’s direction before continuing to dig through his bag. While he worked, he spared the Arbear another glance “I’ll tell you friend, you sure got lucky today.”

Callum followed Indy, standing by the edge of the bed. In the past, when he’d taken a leap and interned under a magical healer, Cal found it difficult to deal with suffering creatures. He should have had an inkling beforehand. It was too easy to get invested, too easy to care. Every loss felt devastating, like he’d had to abandon a childhood pet over and over again. Cal had never been particularly clinical. He would’ve saved himself a lot of trouble and doubt if he’d accepted this realisation sooner. Even now, as his best friend stood by him, Callum felt uneasy.

The thought of sending the Arbear to the sanctuary hadn’t crossed his mind, though it was an obvious solution, and he was glad he’d invited Indy to be the voice of reason. His features softened, mouth curving into a small smile. “You think it’ll be that easy?” he questioned, hopefulness framing his words. Cal crouched down so that he was eye-level with the Arbear. He tried to inspect its paw without touching it. It already appeared alarmed, and he didn’t want to aggravate the creature further.

Callum glanced up at Indy. Something felt odd about considering the benefits of helping. If he brought the Arbear to the sanctuary and assisted, it was true, he would earn extra credit – potentially enough to allow him the opportunity to join the research trip he was interested in. He tugged on a lock, mulling over the thought, before a whimper interrupted. Cal felt the guilt swell in his chest. Right now, the main priority needed to be this creature. The benefits didn’t matter. “Yeah, they like sweets,” he replied, slowly inching his hand closer to the creature so it could inspect him. Then, he put his hands up to catch the doughnuts. Callum pulled the plastic open and took one out, holding the confection in front of the Arbear’s nose. The creature moved slowly, cautiously, sniffing the sweet for a minute. “It’s okay,” Callum encouraged, eyes widening as he watched the creature with keen interest.

It never failed to amaze him to see a new creature up close. He supposed that was his favourite part about magizoology; there was always something new to learn. Rarely did he ever get bored in this field of study. Callum’s half-smiled brightened into a full-on grin when the Arbear took a bite of the doughnut. It chewed quickly, so he rested the rest of the treat on the bed for it. He’d change the sheets later. Standing up properly, Cal refocused on Indiana. “Isn’t this fantastic?” He was beaming. “We got lucky today,” he corrected. “You’re helping out too.” Cal squeezed his friend on the shoulder and turned towards his desk. Now, to figure out the splint.

In truth, Indiana didn’t know if it would be easy or not, but at the moment, it didn’t seem like pessimism was the best choice, so he offered Callum a shrug as he looked at his friend over his shoulder “I hope so?” He wasn’t sure who they could ask at the Institute, maybe Cal could ask Arden if she knew of anyone, even if it wasn’t her specialty “Maybe you could ask Arden?” He asked, honestly, but also wiggled his eyebrows a little, gently poking fun at Callum. After an eternity of digging through his bag, Indiana pulled out some Popsicle sticks and gauze. He for the life of him couldn’t remember where he got them but assumed that Ashley had either put them in his backpack at some point, or insistently pestered him about it until he’d done it himself.

Carrying first aid supplies was something the rest of his family was very conscientious of, considering what they did for a living. Indy wasn’t sure why he’d not caught the habit yet, considering injuries were not uncommon in their chosen field either. He eyed the Arbear’s leg and paw, trying to judge whether or not one Popsicle stick would be enough. He couldn’t get a good look at the injured limb with the way it was tucked against the animal’s side.

 Narrowing his eyes in thought, Indiana watched Callum feed the Arbear, a smile ghosting across his lips as he watched the Abear chew “Is there a spell we could use to immobilize or otherwise incapacitate the Arbear?” He didn’t like the idea all that much, but if they were going to get at the injured limb, Indiana wasn’t sure what other option they had “I don’t want to do it, but if the limb is broken, it won’t reach for it with that paw…” A thought came to the wizard “See if it’ll reach for the doughnuts with that paw – if it does, then we’ll be able to help without having to do anything more…” He paused “Drastic? And if not we’ll have to either take it somewhere as is, or see what we can do ourselves.” Indy didn’t think Callum would go for most of those ideas, but he was running out of ideas when they couldn’t get to the limb itself.

He supposed if nothing else, they could try and swaddle the creature the nomaj way, but that held no guarantees either. Callum’s grin was infectious, and Indiana found himself returning it. It was pretty cool, that their chosen profession let them have the knowledge they needed to do what they were doing now. He laughed and offered Callum another shrug, not entirely comfortable with the praise even when it was coming from Callum, who was one of his best friends “You’re the one who found him and got him somewhere safe, I’m just throwing out ideas to see what sticks.” His day was turning out to be an interesting one, between what they had found in the archives, and his and Callum’s current adventure.

“Don’t wiggle your eyebrows like that.” Cal shrunk from the sheer embarrassment, covering his face, but unable to withhold a soft laugh. Sometimes he hated that alcohol tended to loosen his lips. Liquid courage had sent him on quite the tangent a few weeks ago, and Indy refused to let him live it down. After the third drink, any hope of keeping his secrets under wraps had been abandoned; a small infatuation with their student teacher had been the main covert piece of information weighing on him, and he’d gone on and on about it to whoever would listen. Now his friend never missed an opportunity to bring it up.

“But you’re right, I’ll ask her.” He could feel the heat beneath his skin and he kept his eyes away from Indy, not wanting to meet the smirk that he just knew was waiting for him. He hoped Dash didn’t mind him bothering her with another question.

As he interacted with the creature, Callum could hear Indy working behind him. Although his brow furrowed at the recommendation, it was for this exact reason he was glad he’d thought to owl his friend. Indy was much better at coming to a concrete decision, even if the necessary action wasn’t the easiest. Cal wavered at the thought of incapacitating it – a simple stunning spell would do the trick, he knew, but it felt callous given the Arbear’s condition. And deceptive. But Indy was right, it was probably their best bet at helping it. Still, he perked up at the gentler suggestion, deciding to try that first. Callum slid the rest of the doughnuts towards the creature, but it didn’t move. He frowned. It must have sensed his earlier hesitation.

“Stunning’s the only option it seems,” he said lowly, getting up. “Ah, wanna do the honours?”