Compos Mentis

Neros Exla

My partner and I walked towards our old Station wagon with supplies on hand when the old lady came trotting behind us with her poncho like jacket flowing in the wind.

"Oh, oh, oh, there is no need for a car. My home is down the road this way, it's not too far."

My partner and I exchange looks and I shrug my shoulders.

"Alrighty, lead the way, Miss," I say.

The lady nods her head and starts walking away from our little shop down a gradually darkening alleyway. I knew the neighborhood like the back of my hand but I haven't been down this way. And frankly, I don't even recall seeing a majority of it on a GPS or anything of that sorts. Maybe it hasn't been updated in a while?

I glance at my partner who was making a little bit of a flame going in his hands to light up the path. I give him a playful jab in the side that causes him to unintentionally snuff out the fire in his hands.

"Really?! I was trying my best not to set anything else on fire tonight. What do you want?"

"Does any of this place look familiar to you Draco? Like, it doesn't ring a bell at all to me." I say pointing to my surroundings.

"I think you are just saying that because you spend a majority of your life in that study of yours. Should I bring up how many times you've like lived in there? Brought you food? Ran the shop cause you wanted to test a new potio-"

"Alright, alright I get it. Maybe this will be a nice time for Pepper to stretch his wings out a bit?" I say cutting him off.

"I honestly don't care what that little shit does as long as it doesn't involve me. I'm not afraid to burn that bird if he tries something, we'd be eatin' chicken tonight!" Draco playfully bounces a flame back and forth between his hands giving Pepper a smug look.

I roll my eyes and turn my head towards Pepper.

"Want to go for a quick fly, love?" I ask him.

He blinks his yellow eyes and responds back to me.

"Yes of course. Thank you very much Neros, but stay safe at this lady's home I don't think this is safe for you to do."

"I'll be fine I promise. If anything happens I'll do my best to reach out to you okay? Just stay close around here alright?"

With that my owl lets out a screech and flies off of my shoulder into the night sky. My partner looks up at the sky the same time I do and then looks towards me.

"I still don't get how you two can have a whole conversation in front of me and I can't hear anything!" He says with a grumpy tone.

"That sounds like you are just jealous to me, and it's called telepathy smart one."

"Okay well, shut up. I don't want some little rat with wings reading my mind or anything, that's freaking creepy. And what if he is reading something you don't want him to hear huh? Do you ever stop to think about tha-"

"Shush shush! Please keep your voice down!.....He can hear you..."

The old lady stops dead in her tracks in front of a dingy looking shack of a home. The shutters were falling off, the lawn hasn't been mowed in probably decades and the paint is chipping off on all sides visible in this time of day.

I feel the frigid wind brush itself on my neck making each and every hair strand stand up.

I already get a very strong negative vibe just from standing outside the home, it's enough to make me want to turn around and walk back home.