Fantastic Beasts and How to Free Them

Sakura pants, fighting the growing urge to brush her sweaty hair out of her face. The hair tie broke over an hour ago and she has yet to find a safe enough position to retie it.

If Sakura were the superstitious sort, she may consider it an ill omen. After all, the hair tie was a gift given by the arachne, bestowed upon the return of their Prophetess. It was woven from the strongest of their silks and imbued with protective qualities. For it to break here and now…

Unfortunately, Sakura is not superstitious in the least.

In her line of work, she cannot afford to be.

So, instead, Sakura blows the hair out of her face. Attempts to at least.

"Need a hand with that?" a sibilant voice asks.

Sakura shifts, glancing out of the corner of her eye at her passenger. "Can you? I do not want you to fall or injure yourself further."

"This is a trifle, incapacitated as I am," she replies. "If I have our permission?"

"Of course," Sakura says, holding still.

Clawed, spindly fingertips brush back Sakura's damp hair. Sakura tightens her grip on the cliff face, ignoring the tickling sensation of downy feathers against her neck. She remains still as her hair is pulled and tugged into a makeshift braid. The dampness of her hair keeps it in place.

"Thank you," Sakura says as the creature, Aello, adjusts and tucks her claws back into the folds of Sakura's shirt.

"Of course," Aello says, leaning closer and inhaling. "You smell of brine." Her voice is melancholy and full of want.

"It's sweat," Sakura explains as she begins to climb once more. "Most mammalian humanoids do so when they exert themselves; it cools us down."

Aello hums, a simple but musical thing and presses her head closer to Sakura's neck. It heats Sakura's body even more, but she doesn't complain.

"Have you ever nested at the ocean?" Sakura asks to occupy her mind with something beyond the climb. "The Great Migration occurred centuries ago, were you present?"

Aello shakes her head against Sakura's neck. "It was before my time. Between human exploration and an overpopulation of sirens, we were ousted to higher grounds. We've visited the ocean before." Sakura feels the way Aello tenses. "I do not think I was supposed to tell you that."

Sakura laughs, muscles coiling as she sees the next sturdy hand hold, six feet up. "Hold tight." She flings herself upward, stomach swooping with exhilaration as she catches hold firmly. "I care not for any breaches you've made in your treaty. I am no enforcer. My only covenant with your people is to see you home."

Aello relaxes, sighing in relief. "Maybe don't mention the ocean to my mother? It's a secret."

"Of course," Sakura replies, struck suddenly by Aello's youth. Her life may have decades on Sakura, but she is still a child. Rage beats in her chest against the poachers but the ones responsible are long gone. And Sakura has already dealt with the buyer and his ilk. "It will be our secret."

"Thank you," Aello says. "I'm sorry I've been so much trouble. If my wing—"

"It is no trouble," Sakura interrupts. I am glad to help, Aello."

Aello snuggles in closer, falling silent. Sakura doesn't push any further for conversation, hearing the pained hitch in Aello's breath. With a fractured wing, she must be in near intolerable pain, especially considering her age. Aello has yet to complain, even when the hollow bones were undoubtedly jarred as she fixed Sakura's hair and even now as they climb.

Sakura turns her attention instead to her plans post-mission. She has no other covenants to fulfill, at least not currently. They have a way of piling up quickly. Maybe she'll visit the Grand Canyon or Santorini.

Sweat drips down her arms, staining her shirt.

Santorini, definitely Santorini. She's had enough of climbing for at least a few weeks.

They make good time as Sakura fantasizes about walking rocky shores and consuming her weight in seafood and, before she knows it, the end is in sight.

She crests the lip of the cliff, standing up on the plateau. This is the furthest she'll be able to climb. Sakura gently lifts Aello down off her shoulders, unwrapping the rope binding them together.

"Sakura."

Sakura whirls, keeping Aello at her back as she pulls the chain from her neck and speaks the word that elongates the charm into a staff. Green sparks emerge from the circular top of the staff. "What do you want?" she demands, idly wondering if, perhaps, she should have been more superstitious.

"I am here for you," Kakashi replies, adjusting his cuff links. He is frustratingly unruffled. "Your mother sent me."

"My mother?" Sakura asks, tensing further. "Somehow I doubt that."

"It's true."
Sakura raises a hand to stop his speech as the beating of wings fills the air. "You'd better clear out, Kakashi. Harpies are notoriously protective of their young."

Sakura smirks as Kakashi pales, relaxing only when he summons a portal to step through. She turns to Aello, kneeling before her. "Your mouther is here."

Aello grins, throwing back her head and releasing a squall. It is a small, high pitched cry, reflecting her youth, that is greeted in turn by a thunderous screech.

Sakura ducks her head in deference as the Queen of the Northern Harpies lands. Her obsidian crown glints in the setting sun as do her sharp teeth as she smiles.

"I was told you were the best," Queen Ocypete muses, striding over to Sakura. She towers above Sakura by a good two feet or so. "I did not believe, I thought it impossible, but you've brought my Aello back to me." She squats by her daughter, running her fingers over Aello's body. "I thank you for your actions today."

"Of course," Sakura says, eyes averted.

Ocypete snaps and a few of her retinue steps forward, hefting large chests. "Your reward."

Sakura stands and moves toward Ocypete, biting her thumb. Ocypete turns, moving away from where she's been cleaning her daughter's feathers. She bites her own scaly finger, extending it to Sakura.

"The covenant is complete," they say as their hands touch.

There is a flash of brilliant light and Sakura finds that the itch, the one that has niggled at the back of her mind since this covenant began, disappears, finally scratched.

A hand tugs at her pants. Sakura turns, taking Aello's hand. Aello beckons and Sakura kneels, grunting at the pain in her knees. She's definitely overexerted herself today and she'll pay for it tomorrow.

Aello puts her lips up by Sakura's ear. "When I'm queen, I want you to join me."

Sakura smiles, patting Aello's uninjured wing. "Perhaps," she defers. "I have many responsibilities."

"I'll come find you," Aello promises, stubbornness in the tilt of her chin. "You'll see."

Sakura smiles absently, watching as Aello is placed upon a litter and lifted into the skies. She watches as they disappear back to their kingdom, far above anyplace a human dare venture.

"Impressive."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "Go away, Kakashi."

"I cannot," Kakashi says. "Your mother ordered me here."

"And like a good scarecrow you came, always hovering," Sakura says bitterly. "What does my mother want?"

"Nothing I expect," Kakashi says blandly. "She's dead."

Sakura inhales sharply, tears stinging at her eyes. She and her mother were never close but to be told in such a blase manner…

"She left the menagerie to you," Kakashi says, expression blank even in the face of Sakura's tears. "All of it." He stops, sketching a mocking bow. "Myself included."

"Perfect," she says, pinching her brow against an oncoming headache. "What was she thinking? Me in charge of the menagerie?"

Kakashi shrugs.

Sakura sits down heavily, stunned by the news. What will she do? What can she do? She sits there until day becomes night, stirring as the moon hangs fat and heavy in the sky.

"What will you do?" Kakashi asks.

Sakura looks at him, the impeccable, remote, ageless butler of her childhood, and grins. "I'm ending it," she says.

"What?"

If she didn't know better, Sakura would say Kakashi is surprised.

"They all go free," she says, leaping to her feet, the itch beginning to burn once more. She bites her finger, feeling her blood sing with this new covenant. "Starting with you."

Tags: #sakura haruno #y'all i have IDEAS #so many ideas #about sakura as a magical creatures activist and adventurer #who goes around freeing oppressed/abused creatures from capture #and now she'll get to work on her mother's menagerie #full of some of the most exotic beings in the magical world #and a lot of them will choose to stick around with the optimistic human who is trying to create change #idk #if i went further with this it'd probably be as an original fic #also you definitely know kakashi sticks around #I want a published book from this drabble