Echoes of Maoriland

[Eric Koche]

There was no coincidence that when they reached their destination, it was foggy, swampy, and a place where very few animals wondered around. However, the spot they landed on was hard, which was fortunate, because Egon was rolling forward o nthe ground after disaparation. He never got used to feeling, and for that, his hair stiffened and his eyes widened.

Eric was fortunate enough to not give such a looked, but still was on alert. Did the Ministry find them? Would the Death Eaters check their house if they did not suceed in capturing Autumn? Most importantly, why was Autumn being hunted?!

Normally, like a good hit wizard, Eric would question his victims immedietly- but there was no time to be waisted. They must find somewhere to stay, and the only place would be a Maori Hut 10 minutes away from here.

Eric spoke apologetically before making a move on the big question. "Sorry I didn't aparate closer ot the house. My mum jinxed the area by my house because my brothers recently just got their licenses and have been driving her crazy." He gave a small smile. "Are- are you alright? What happened over there?"

[Autumn Tait]

“The box! Do you still have it?!” Autumn shot the question at Eric before saying anything else. “I’m sorry, I’m still on edge. Thank you so much for coming back I wouldn’t have made it without you” Autumn hugged Eric tightly as the truth of her statement hit her.

After a few minutes Autumn continued, “They were after the puzzle box, that women said that the Dark Lord wanted it, but I have no idea why. We need to figure this out before they come back!” Autumn flinched on the inside. Just because Eric saved her life right now doesn’t mean he would be willing to get fully involved in this mess. She really shouldn’t have used the word ‘we’ right away she didn’t want him to feel trapped. “I mean, I want to figure out what is so important about that box…you still have it right?” Autumn would deal with the "we" situation later right now she needed to see that box.

[Eric Koche]

Eric quickly looked around in his robes, and could not find it. However, it was snuck tightly in the right picket. "Oh, um, here it is." he said. Egon puffed his chest once more and barked proudly to remind them of how he was such a veterin in the store. He knocked over one of those scarry death eaters, and for that, he needed some attention at the moment. Eric, however, took the gesture differently.

"Perhaps we should go inside first. It looks like it is about to rain outside. It is also freezing cold out here." Eric made a shivering sensation after saying this. He liked the cold, but not when he wasn't weating the proper gear. Koche just hoped that Autumn would understand. Wait, now that he thought of it, an archeologist whom just came back from Egypt would definetly understand! When was the last time she felt snow at her feet? He smiled, knowing that Autumn would agree. Maybe, of course.

[Autumn Tait]

Seeing Eric shiver made Autumn realize how cold she really was, she did not have time to grab warmer clothes before they left so she only had on a cocktail dress and a thin robe. “Yeah, I would like to as well.” Autumn agreed as she turned towards Eric’s house.

Autumn was glad to see that the box was still safely in their possession. Taking it into her hands she examined it. She had known from the moment she found this box that there was something special about it; now all they had to do was figure out what.

“Do you think that your brother will still be able to look at it?” Autumn asked. She hated to drag others into the danger surrounding this box, but the more they knew about this puzzle box the better off they would be.

[Eric Koche]

"Yeah, I am sure he will be able to figure it out." he said.

Eric gave a short whistle to grab Egon's attention. He seemed to have already been sniffing out the place, scouting to see if the area was clear. The dog's ears pirked up. He was being summoned. Finally! Perhaps there would be a treat involved. Boy, Egon hoped so, for those tastey wizard bites were quite the apatizer he needed after a dominating fight. Egon sat down and began to wag his tail.

Eric spoke. "Egon, go to mum to tell her that we are here." Eric did not want his 'mutti' to be concerned as to where he was. They were late for dinner. Eric only knew that because they always ate at 8:00, and the boys didn't seem to be playing in the corn fields from where Eric could see.

"We will have to walk from here on. Mum doesn't like to have us apparating all around the house and yards. She thinks it is too dangerous." Eric gave a small small. "Mum, she may seem over protective, but she means well."

Then he saw how cold Autumn was. It must be below freezing out here, and she didn't have any robes for the occation; just some cloths on that seemed to only be worn to impress his coterie. Eric quickly took off his robe as he spoke. "Here, where mine. I don't want you to get a cold or anything." he said. "How's Chissis doing, by the way?"

[Autumn Tait]

At the sound of his name Chisisi popped his head out of Autumn’s robes. He was used to acting tough but this death eater attack had gotten the best of his wits and he was scared. Realizing that they were in a safe place Chisisi tried to save face, he jumped out of Autumn’s arms and on to the ground there he walked in a circled around Eric and Autumn, in his mind acting as a lookout. Autumn suppressed a giggle she didn’t want the creature thinking that he wasn’t as useful as Egon.

“His fine,” Autumn said as she happily took Eric’s thicker robes, they were already warm from being recently worn and she quickly snuggled into the fabric folds. “We are both fine thanks to you, how did you know to come back?”

[Eric Koche]

Eric continued to walk over to his house as he spoke. Shyly, he placed up two leather pieces of acesories and smiled. "I forgot my gloves."

He jsut hoped that was taken wrong. If he knew that Autumn was in trouble, Eric would most definetly come racing back to help! She knew that, right?

"My father gave me these gloves a long time ago, and when I noticed them missing, I just had to go back and get them. I was lucky enough to remember the blocks that I had walked. Well, the snow helped too, but when it didn't show up on the path, I came back to your store."

Eric then stated another question at her. "Why do you think they would have come to get the object so brutally? Why did one of them not simply come in, uncloaked, to by it from you? It would surely seem much easier to try and talk you into selling it rather than trying to take it out of our hands..." Perhaps Autumn knew the answer to this, for Eric was defiently stumped on such a mystery.

[Autumn Tait]

Gloves…that made sense. He had come back, for his gloves. So the that mystery was answered with logic. Eric wasn’t some secret psychic, he didn’t have a feeling she was in danger or anything silly like what Autumn had been thinking. He had simply forgotten his gloves and returned to her store to retrieve them. This simple answer got Autumn to start thinking logically again.

So why did the death eaters attack the way they did if they just wanted the box? “Well…” Autumn started to respond, partially to herself but also partially to answer Eric’s question. Death eaters were violent people maybe they just enjoyed frightening her? Maybe they wanted others to know of their recent come to power, know that they were getting stronger? Those ideas were all possible explanations but they just didn’t seem right.

“Well…maybe they thought I knew why the box was so special and didn’t think I would simply sell it to them.” Autumn suggested
Now that was not a comforting thought…the death eaters over estimated her, ha! Even they thought should would have figured out the secret powers of the box by now. Autumn felt completely discouraged.

But then again who could guess what was going on in the death eater’s heads. They were so…different from the average witch or wizard, so twisted. How could a normal person ever even guess at the kinds of thoughts going on in such a mind?

[Eric Koche]

Eric smiled. "Perhaps." he said. It was quite possible that the Death Eaters could have over-estimated her. Afterall, she was an archeologist, and from what little did he read about them in Hogwarts, they really had to learn to defend themselves from tribes and such sorts. It would explain why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named needed to send three Death Eaters to the shop.

It really all depended on just about home much they knew about Autumn already. Eric continued to speak. "... Which means that they must know more about you then we might know at the moment. Someone you know has also been watching you closely, if they knew that you had the box. Is there anyone besides me that knew about your exploration to Egypt? Did anyone go with your duing the exploration?"

[Autumn Tait]

Autumn thought carefully about the trip, who knew that she was going? Autumn felt stupid and a little embarrassed admitting this to Eric but really Autumn had been careless with the information. She wasn’t anyone important so what did it matter?

“Well, I don’t know I mentioned the trip to lots of people casually, but I go to Egypt quite often it is part of my job, I go about once every few months.”

Could one of those people been a secret death eater? A random customer or maybe someone she knew? Autumn started to get stressed. “But why would someone be watching me? I’ve never found anything extremely important before, so how would anyone know that I was going to find this? It doesn’t make sense.” Autumn thought it threw, how did the dark lord know about the puzzle box she found? Autumn seriously doubted that she was important enough to be on someone’s watch list so there had to be another explanation.

“ Maybe, someone saw me with the box… in Egypt or after I returned and recognized it somehow?”

[Eric Koche]

Eric made a grudging noise. "But that doesn't explain how they knew about the box's power. A lot of objects are probably found in egypt constantly.." This was, of course, assumed by Eric. "...but it doesn't make all of them valuable to The Death Eaters. How do they know this box was valuable if they did not previously know about it, or studied it with you before?"

Eric then thought again. "You mentioned that this box was found by accident. Like, what were you looking for before you found the box?" Maybe the two objects had some sort of link.

[Autumn Tait]

“I was in Egypt looking for an ancient book, it’s in runes but the title translates roughly into The Book of the Mist, mysterious sounding right?” Autumn laughed, secretly hoping that he didn’t recognize the title, really didn’t want him to laugh at her. Pretty much every modern scholar agreed that the book of the mist never existed.

“It’s a very old book of ancient magic. I would be a terrific find because there are still many old spells that have been lost. If I could find that book, it would unlock so many secrets about the ancient world that have eluded witches and wizards for centuries.”

Now most historians argued that she book is just something archeologists hope exists because it would ‘Do their work for them’ as Spellman had so unkindly put it. Autumn’s old professors always had explained it to her this way ‘Why would they fill up a book with magic that everyone knew how to do! Writing was uncommon back then so they only wrote down things that they needed to be reminded of.’

“The books existence has been brought under question by many” Autumn explained not wanting to lie to Eric, “but I thought that I might as well look for it I mean if it does exist it holds so much information it would be careless not to look for it.”

[Eric Koche]

Eric had no idea about the book. He was no archeologist, but he was familiar with some history of the magical world, and this, spoke his opinion. "Maybe the book would have something to do with this puzzle box we found. It seems very unlikely that both of these things do not relate to each other if you found..." Eric placed the object they kept ever so close in the air. "... this box as you were on your way to find more clues about the book." Eric suddendly felt foolish with his logics, as he was not a person known for his wits. He was lucky that they were close enough to the house for him to quickly change the subject of logic and reasoning.

Egon barked from the porched that bordered their hut. The hut was small for a family of seven, but no doubt was hinxed with magic to make up for the room of seven. Infront of them laid a faided pink cobbled walkway that was bordered with a rose guarden, which was unbloomed because of the winter. Many of the other plants seemed to be hybernating, which made the place look dull, but the flowers inside which one could see from the windows of the hexagonal shaped house.

"Come on, lets get in." he said as she jogged his way to the front steps. Egon made a loud barking sound to show his appreciation to their company and to signal that the rest of his family was here. Kendra, the mother of Eric, was the first to come out. Her thick german accent didn't help her clarify what she was saying, but didn't matter to Eric- he spoke German. "My Eric, where have you been? The Stew 'as been brewing for a half an hour! Where's-" Kendra looked behind Eric and saw Autumn. Her face seemed pale. Perhaps she was starting to get sick from the weather. "Autumn! You are 'ere! Where is your jaket silly? You look freezing cold!" She quickly came opened the porch, which creeked as it moved.

Eric spoke. "Mutti, Autumn and I wer-"

Kendra seemed to have missed the emotion in Eric's voice. "No time to talk! Yo uare both cold and 'ungry. Come in, and eat, and then we can talk all about Autumn's trip from Egypt!"

There was no hope of telling Kendrea about what happened. Not until dinner was eaten, and for that, he smiled to Autumn, signaling that they should talk about what happened when they got in the house. Eric made his way to the door, assuming tht Autumn was behind him.

[Autumn Tait]

The book and box could be related Autumn thought, in the fact that the special qualities of the puzzle box would surely be mentioned in the book. Autumn had been thinking and was now certain that whatever properties this box it must be ancient magic. Could the death eaters have this book? Autumn wondered, maybe that is how they knew it was valuable? But that still wouldn’t explain how they knew it was in her possession. She wanted to voice her thoughts to Eric but they were approaching his house and would soon be in earshot of his family.

Eric and Autumn were now walking through his front yard, with Chisis trotting in front. He had regained his calm collective behavior and was starting to act like himself again. Seeing that there were people to impress he fluffed out his fur and stuck his nose in the air determined to act more refined than Egon.

Autumn nervously ran her fingers threw her hair and smoothed out her dress. She was going to follow Eric lead on how to and even if to tell his family what had just happened. But if Autumn walked in the front door looking like she had just been threw a tornado his family would get the wrong idea and they would have to spill out the story with less tact than she was hoping for.

As soon as they were on the path Eric's mother started rapidly firing questions at them without leaving time for an answer in between questions. Autumn followed Eric's lead and stepped inside.

[Eric Koche]

From inside the porch to the front kitchen. Eric was well aware that all his brothers were sitting down and already enjoying dinner. Johnny, the young black haired kid next to Tyler, was stuffing down potatoes as Zack and Kaolin were talking about what they have achieved that day. All were having fun and were actually behaving until Egon managed to start barking in the kitchen to signal that Eric and Autumn have come into the scene.

"Egon, no!" Zack said, and the others followed with the same negative response. Little did they know, Egon would have been quite if only one of them said 'no'. Instead, all the No's sounded like mur-mur to him, and the dog thought they were playing some sort of barking game. He continued to bark loudered, and the boys followed with nos. Kendra lifted the stirring spoon she had in her hand and spoke. "Quite, young fellows!" Zack and Tyler listned, but Johnny Kaolin were still yelling at the dog. It all went quite, though, soon enough because Egon quickly ran over to the other room to advoid Mutti's screaming.

Mutti looked over at Autumn. "Autumn, dear, please take a seat in the table. Tell us about your trip! Eric was constantly mentioning how many things you find around the middle east before and how you were sure to find something quite interesting this time."

Eric blushed. Kendra always seemed to make him embarrassed. He was lucky that Zack spoke up. With curly blond hair and blue eyes, he pulled out the chair for Autumn. "Mutti, let her sit first!" he said, knowing how mutti always made him feel embarrassed when he brought a girl over. He hoped that Autumn would then continue her story form there.

"Yes, yes, sorry my dear. Sit down and let me bring something for you to eat!" Eric sat down in the head of the table, where he was rightfully placed since his father went overseas for business. Egon still stayed in the same room, for he must have found some sort of bone to chew on. All were happy and waited in their own way for Autumn to speak.