It's Not Exactly Safe for You To Be Here (Harvey and Indra)
Harvey cursed quietly as he stumbled throughout the pitch-black forest, tripping on gnarled roots arching up from the ground and smartly tapping his head on low hanging branches, the trees so dense in the area that the light from the overripe moon hanging low in the sky barely reached him. The selfsame gossip rag he usually avoided like the plague had actually printed something of use this past week, and he’d come to the forest to investigate.
It seemed there were unusual sounds coming from the forest lately, heard only at night, and they had gotten so bad that a warning was issued to the general population. Even though the behavior was not typical for a dragon and he’d received no information about a pick-up in the area, he wanted to be sure of it before he ruled it out. No sense in leaving a baby dragon to the likes of the purebloods if Harvey could save it. So, this night he’d gathered up necessary supplies in his sturdy, well-worn satchel and headed out; after searching about an hour and a half, he hadn’t found anything. Stopping in a clearing, he began to rummage around in the pack for his telescope: if he couldn’t find an animal, constellations were a stellar consolation prize.
Until, of course, he heard a curious sort of growling behind him. Freezing on the spot, Harvey tried to still all of his muscles, ratcheting his breathing down to a quiet level. It had spiked with adrenaline when he heard the sound behind him. Still moving quietly, Harvey slowly turned around to the trees behind him, night-weak eyes searching in vain for the source of the sounds. Then he heard it again, followed by a wet snuffling and whine; and that didn’t sound like a dragon. Racking his brain, he moved as… whatever it was moved, the thing taking almost drunken steps forward. Harvey hastily and as silently as possible moved back into the cover of the trees, kneeling down to his knees and peeking through the undergrowth to try and get a look at the creature. His imagination flew at the possibilities of what it could be; if not a dragon, then what? A chimera? A hippogriff? A thestral? His curiosity, as usual, made him more careless, and in his hasty efforts to lean forward and observe the creature, he snapped a twig with his knee, the sound loud in the darkness.
From the bright night of the clearing, he could see two glowing eyes snapping up to meet his, making his breath catch coldly in his throat. Trying to remain as still as possible, he struggled to maintain eye contact with the thing.
