Newt's Assistant: A Newt Scamander FanFic

Chapter Three

Eleanor carefully stepped outside what was now a little shack and into what seemed to be a type of reservoir of some sort. She didn't know what to look at first; what caught her eye was the huge African creature that resembled a Rhino. Eleanor had read about these creatures before. 

Erumpents are extremely powerful creatures whose skin acts as a spell repellent. They also have a horn that produces a deadly fluid that explodes; they are quite gentle creatures and will only attack if being provoked. There weren't many around these days since males tend to blow themselves up during mating and females only give birth to one calf in their lifetime. Eleanor wondered why Newt would have such a huge creature like this in his case, but looked and saw a drawing with a note stating she was rescued during the last war with multiple wounds and cuts.

Her eyes fell upon the next creature that began to stir on a rock towards the other side of a different safari enclosure and her mouth fell open. How could Newt keep this in here? Eleanor thought about this creature and how bad of a reputation it had these days. It stood about six feet tall, stretched its back, and puffed out it's chest. Nundus are said to be the most terrifying and dangerous beasts to exist. Eleanor disagreed, she knew they were just misunderstood, yet she was still a little worried for her life. Nundus are very unpredictable and just their breath alone is deadly. 

Dougal pulled on Eleanor's hand to show her the notebooks for them and she picked them up. It must be feeding time, Eleanor thought and she opened up the journal about the Nundu. She had to find where Newt kept everything, but it seemed easy enough. She went into his cubby and pulled out a nasty slab of raw meat and read that she had to cut it up into smaller portions.

"This is so gross," she said out loud and might have even gagged a bit, but knew it had to get done. She butchered the meat and threw it into a bucket. She opened up the other journal about the erumpent. Eleanor went back to a different cubby and found leaves for the erumpent and sighed a breath of relief when she didn't have to butcher any more meat. Both journals said to watch your distance during feeding time, so she followed along and left their food in their designated spots and went back into the shed. She watched through a crack in the door to make sure they were eating and to her surprise, they were enjoying themselves.

"What's next?" Eleanor asked Dougal and he brought her to the other side. She opened the curtain back and again was stunned at the sight before her. Forests, mountains, sands, and lakes appeared in front of her and nearly everywhere she looked, there was a new creature. Niffler jumped from her arms and ran over to his little burrow to make himself comfy. Eleanor couldn't believe that she was still in a suitcase, but again had to get to work to make sure these guys weren't too hungry when their owner finally showed up. She thought about Newt again, wondering where he could've gone. 

Eleanor grabbed a bag labeled "Occamies" and headed towards the bamboo enclosure. She came up to the nest slowly, not to disturb them, and opened the bag to find some lovely roaches. She gave each of them two and one even let her pet it, which is very rare. Eleanor learned that Occamies have shells that are made of the purest and softest form of silver. They learn to protect themselves at such a young age and can be pretty aggressive. She moved on to a tree and noticed there were bowtruckles climbing around.

Eleanor knew exactly what they would like to eat and proceeded to grab a handful of woodlice and some tweezers. She fed each bowtruckle a few wood lice until they were all full and refused to eat anymore. She went to turn back to put the remainder away when she felt a tug at a button on her sleeve. Looking at it, she noticed a bowtruckle hanging on. 

"Why hello there!" Eleanor giggled and picked the bowtruckle up in her palm. She went to put it back onto the tree, but he clung onto her fingers as hard as he could and squeaked. "Well okay then, you can come along while I feed the others, I suppose."

Dougal lay in his area and already seemed to be munching on what looked like bamboo. She moved onto the next enclosure which had a pair of Runespoor; these were snake like creatures that had three heads. The one had a cone on its right head. Eleanor knew that sometimes the center and left head would team up to bite off the right head, that's why Runespoor never lived to see old age. She threw over a few dead mice and hand fed the one in the cone to make sure it got something to eat. She looked around to see her next habitat and moved towards the plains. She looked around and didn't see any creatures, so she opened up a nearby journal. Graphorns live here.

Eleanor thought these to be extinct. At least that's what the books she read had told her. She flipped through and read, "If they don't immediately come, make their mating call." Eleanor wrinkled her face, not knowing what that meant. She decided to just go for it, cupped her hands around her mouth, yelled and.... nothing. She waited and tried again. Tired and about to move onto the next creature, she heard them. She turned around and saw two very large graphorns galloping towards her and they weren't alone. She saw two little ones trotting along side of them and they came right up to her, tickling her sides with their tentacles. She giggled and threw some slabs of meat to each of them.  She liked these guys a lot and watched them curiously as they circled her for some more food.

Finally, Eleanor made her way to the last enclosure, a rocky mountain with nearly a dozen mooncalves bobbing around. Eleanor smiled to herself knowing that absolutely no harm could come from these guys. Mooncalves had smooth, pale grey skin, and four spindly legs that ended in large flat webbed feet. They also had a very long neck and bulging blue eyes that sat on the top of its head.

Once the Mooncalves were in the moonlight, they performed these funny moves while standing on their hind legs. Eleanor read that it was believed that this is part of the Mooncalf mating ritual, but also had the side effect of creating these geometric patterns in crops that confused the muggles. She gave them their pellets and set off back to the shed to make sure she got everybody. Looking over the notes, Eleanor was able to confirm that was in fact all of his creatures and she went back up to her apartment to take care of her own things.

She got back into her living room, closed the case, latched it shut, and put the heaviest book she could find on top of it. Satisfied with what she's done, she made way to her kitchen and opened the fridge. Now she was the one that had to get fed. She whipped up some chicken broth, added some veggies and put it into a bowl. She made enough for Newt to have if he ever came back. She really hoped that would be soon. She stood up and washed her bowl in the sink and heard a knock at her door. She snapped her neck around and nearly ran for the door and opened it. 

"Come on in Mr. Scamander," Eleanor said as she stepped aside and let him enter her home.