Chapter 27. The Kelpie's Strange Illness
"That's a Kelpie."
Duncan stood by the rippling lakeshore and pointed not far away.
Since Hermione was willing to help him keep the secret, he of course had to take them around for a look.
The wizarding world was nothing like the Muggle world, with its many zoos, and the animals in the case were hard to see anywhere else.
"That fellow looks really cool.
If only we could ride it for a lap!" Fred said in admiration.
The Kelpie trailed tresses like broadleaf cattail through the clear lake water as it swam.
Its gaze swept the bank by chance, and the Kelpie spotted the people craning their necks as if watching it perform.
A nameless anger suddenly rose in its chest.
The Kelpie's tail lashed, and it wheeled round sharply, rushing at Duncan and the others.
Driven by the Kelpie, the lake heaved into billows, and as the waves crashed down they gathered again.
Like a rank of brave soldiers pushing forward with shields, they charged straight for the bank with irresistible momentum.
"Mori, it's me, your closest friend.
I've come to see you—don't get worked up!"
Duncan shouted the Kelpie's name, trying to soothe its mood.
But his words failed to produce the proper effect this time.
The magic did not take, and Mori became even more frenzied.
Duncan's brows knit with worry.
Mori's illness seemed worse than before.
"Duncan, i-it's lunging at us!"
Seeing the ferocious Kelpie and the terrifying force of the rolling breakers, Neville panicked, his legs trembling uneasily.
If the others hadn't stayed put, he would already have turned and legged it.
"According to the books, a Kelpie often lures the careless onto its back, then drags them into the water and eats them," Hermione said as if giving everyone a bit of popular-science explanation.
Her voice was calm, but it delivered a huge shock to Neville's heart.
"E-eats people?" Neville said in disbelief, his face going stiff.
"How about we fall back first?"
"Don't be scared, Neville!" George hooked an arm round Neville's shoulders with a grin and showed off his muscles.
"Just watch me in a bit—I can subdue it one-handed!"
"Can you really?" Neville said dubiously, edging his feet behind Duncan without making a fuss.
Based on his understanding of Fred and George, everything those two said was hot air, and anyone who believed it had something wrong with their head.
"Putting a bridle over a Kelpie's head will make it obey," Hermione said.
Her eyes swept the surroundings, searching for the one the book mentioned, but she combed the bank and found nothing.
"Bridling a Kelpie makes it uncomfortable, so we seldom use it," Duncan said.
Ever since he had started learning to care for magical creatures from Newt, he had seen Newt use a bridle twice.
Usually, so long as the Kelpie wasn't too violent, Newt would jump into the lake and grapple it at close quarters, gradually calming it into obedience.
But that was a method only a tough fellow like Newt could use.
Duncan hadn't reached that level yet, so he could only adopt a few other means.
He took out the Druid Whistle, pressed it to his lips, and blew.
A mellow sound rose and echoed round the lake.
At once everyone felt a warmth in their hearts, like being gathered into a mother's embrace with nothing left to fear.
At the same time, the Kelpie's mood gradually steadied, and its pace through the water slowed.
The several-metre-high waves lost the strength to stay aloft.
They crashed down with a roar, pounding the lake's surface into layer upon layer of ripples.
The after-wash splashed the bank, and Fred and the others, too slow to dodge, were drenched to the bone in an instant and became proper drowned rats.
Only Duncan, who had stood still without moving, was unscathed, not even a speck of spray on the toes of his shoes.
Fred scrubbed the beads of water from his face with a rough hand, spat twice, and spat out the grit that had just rushed into his mouth.
He looked in surprise at Duncan standing ahead of them and asked, "How did you manage that?"
"Sorry, I forgot to warn you," Duncan said.
"I used to get soaked by Mori too, so my gran put a few simple charms on my clothes to fend off incoming lake water."
"Fred, George, would you help dry Neville's and Hermione's clothes."
With that, he strode quickly toward the bank as Mori listlessly drifted closer.
"Sorry.
I lost control of myself again," Mori lowered its head and pressed its skull to Duncan's body, voice low and full of pain.
"It's all right.
That's not your fault," Duncan said gently, stroking Mori.
"Where on your body do you feel uncomfortable?"
"It's just that my heart gets irritable at times…" Mori said after thinking.
"Oh, right—since yesterday afternoon my back has been itchy now and then, like some little hairy thing crawling on it!"
"Oh? Let me have a look."
Duncan hurriedly had Mori lower its body to a height where he could see its back.
Duncan lifted Mori's hair lock by lock and examined, with utmost care, the spots Mori had just mentioned.
When Fred had finished blow-drying her clothes, Hermione mustered her courage, stepped forward, and asked in a small voice, "Found anything?"
"Look here—the roots of the hair have some black specks," Duncan said, prying Mori's hair apart with one hand and pointing with the other.
"I've never seen this symptom before.
It may well be the reason Mori can't control its emotions.
I'll have to write Grandad a letter in a bit and ask if he has a solution."
Hermione stood on tiptoe to look, then nodded as if half understanding; her knowledge of magical creatures was limited to what she had read.
Duncan finished checking Mori's back and went on asking whether there were any other symptoms.
Mori answered one by one, but after a moment it suddenly pulled away from Duncan and drifted farther from the bank.
"Duncan, get away quickly.
I feel like I'm going to lose control again," Mori said in pain.
"I'll find a way to cure you as soon as I can," Duncan sighed, then led Hermione back to the others.
"Come on, let's head back first.
When Mori's illness is cured, I'll bring you to play with it," Duncan said to the group, returning to the work shed weighed down with worry, his steps much quicker than on the way over.
Back in the wooden shed, Duncan found a few wooden crates and pushed them to Fred and the others for seats.
He took parchment and quill from a drawer, wrote out Mori's symptoms in detail, and prepared to send the letter to Newt after leaving the case.
Fred, George, and Neville started a card game.
Poor Neville was baffled by their teamwork and didn't win a single hand in ages, while Hermione sat quietly reading beside them.
The two sides were clearly divided, and quiet and clamour did not disturb each other.
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