"Who's here...?"
Inside the house, Tina was placing a freshly baked tray of cookies on the table.
"It's Kael," Newt said with a smile.
Tina looked up, somewhat surprised. She had thought it was an old friend.
"Did you forget something?"
She handed the tray of cookies to Kael.
"You could have just sent a letter, and we would have brought it to you. Why come all the way here again?
Moreover, Hogwarts starts tomorrow, doesn't it?"
Not long after returning from Paris, Kael had visited Newt and Tina once already and stayed for two days.
This time, apart from having nothing much to do, it was because Fawkes had delivered the suitcase ahead of time.
Having gotten the "Phoenix Experience Card" was a rare opportunity, and he figured he could take Norbert and the troll back with him, so he wouldn't have to wait until the Christmas holidays.
But Kael hadn't expected the Phoenix's travel method to be so rough. If he had known, he might have waited for the Christmas break.
Kael didn't speak, he just placed the suitcase he was holding on a nearby wooden shelf.
Newt raised an eyebrow and immediately understood. He glanced at Fawkes on Kael's shoulder and nodded subtly.
"Oh... isn't that a Phoenix?"
Just then, Tina noticed Fawkes too, and walked over in surprise, "Is Dumbledore here too? Why not invite him in?"
"He's not, he should still be in Austria at this time," Newt shook his head, "It's just Kael. Fawkes brought him here."
Tina blinked in surprise at those words.
Seeing a Phoenix without Dumbledore around... that's indeed a rare event.
Afterward, Tina brought a glass of lemonade to Kael.
The lemonade was specially made, very sour, with a hint of bitterness, yet it felt quite refreshing after drinking it.
Kael recalled the kind of fruit Newt had given him before; they seemed to know how to relieve that discomfort.
"Have you also been Disillusioned by a Phoenix before?" Kael asked with some curiosity.
"That was many years ago," Newt reminisced, "I must say, that feeling was truly awful and quite unforgettable."
Kael nodded in strong agreement.
After finishing the lemonade, the two knowingly entered Newt's suitcase.
Soon after entering, Fawkes spread its wings and flew towards a patch of forest not far away.
Kael frowned, remembering that seemed to be where the Diricawl lived, and there were many different herbs planted there to treat the sick Fantastic Beasts.
"Don't worry," Newt came over from behind, "Phoenixes may be proud, but they don't reject the Diricawl, so you needn't worry about them."
Kael pulled a wry face.
He wasn't worried about the Diricawl; he was worried about the herbs...
Fawkes was becoming more of a glutton now; he even heard the sound of gulping when it left. Clearly, it was off to feast!
Seeing Newt's nonchalant expression, he obviously hadn't realized the gravity of the situation yet.
It's just that...
Never mind, Kael shook his head and decided to keep silent.
Let it eat. The most important thing now is to keep Fawkes happy and improve his favorability.
As for Newt's losses, Dumbledore can compensate for them later. He's not short of a few herb expenses with his wealth and resources.
Kael nodded, then followed Newt to a massive lake.
Just how big Newt's suitcase was, perhaps even he couldn't say for sure...
The lake in front of him made the school's Black Lake seem like a mere puddle in comparison.
There was an island filled with boulders in the center of the lake, which is where the Fire Dragons lived.
The two took a small boat to the island.
Upon landing, Kael suddenly felt a gust of foul wind from above, with his feet enveloped in a vast shadow.
Thinking he realized what was happening, Kael's fingers twitched slightly, using the ring Diana gave him last year to instantly Disillusion several hundred meters away.
The next moment, a massive Norwegian Ridgeback collided with where he had just been.
It was Norbert, who had always enjoyed crashing into Kael's arms when it was young.
Though once it grew up, Kael had forcibly corrected this bad habit, perhaps because they hadn't seen each other in two months, it had forgotten in its excitement.
"Norbert, calm down..."
Watching the Norwegian Ridgeback turn around, preparing for another run, Kael quickly shouted.
Norbert had grown quite a bit in two months, and a collision could be deadly!
With Diana not home, the Disillusion charm on the ring couldn't be recharged; it could only be used sparingly, and he didn't want to waste it here.
Hearing Kael's words, Norbert finally halted.
It slowly flew over, rubbing its head on Kael's arm.
Just then, Newt came over, chuckling, "If you could have come two days later than Norbert, it probably wouldn't have been this excited."
"That's true, but what can you do..." Kael shrugged.
Last time he visited, he planned to see Norbert, but it had gotten itself into trouble and was beaten up badly by the indigenous resident of the suitcase, the Hungarian Horntail who was returned three times due to its bad temper from the Romanian Fire Dragon Reserve.
Norbert was still under a year old, while the Hungarian Horntail was long since mature. After being beaten up, Norbert was in a coma for several days, just when Kael came to see it.
But there was a silver lining.
Newt told him that ever since waking up, Norbert had mellowed significantly. While not turning from a troublemaker into a goody-two-shoes entirely, it was a far cry from its mischievous past.
As they talked, Newt also took Kael to see the Hungarian Horntail.
Concerned about potential accidents, Newt had never taken him here before.
This was Kael's first time seeing the Horntail in the suitcase with his own eyes.
A large, robust black Fire Dragon, it seemed to catch a scent it disliked, standing on its hind legs with its neck raised high, its orange-yellow eyes sharply focusing on Kael and Newt.
Kael noticed its mouth was about sixty feet off the ground, a size larger than a normal adult Horntail.
No wonder it was returned three times; such a large fellow would be hard to control, even with ten Wizards should it go berserk.
"We have Norbert's scent on us, and she doesn't care for the kid," Newt explained.
Kael nodded; he could see it too.
They didn't linger long, and after leaving the island of Fire Dragons, Newt took Kael to another area to see the troll.
This one seemed quite content, and when Kael arrived, it was fast asleep on the grassy ground, clutching its wooden club.