Chapter 521 - The Apothecary (2/2)
Damocles nods his head once at the shopkeeper snatches his parcel from Mr. Herbert, who's lips twitch upward hiding a smile. With his head held high, Damocles stomps away and out of the Apothecary into the infernal heat. Luckily, his next destination is close by the cauldron shop of Madam Potage. The shop would be dusty and warm, but Madam Potage always had a cool drink on hand for her most frequent clients.
Feigning being distracted, the usual sly and shrewd figure of Damocles peeks out of the corner of his at the ruffians rapidly approaching in the distance. Trying not to tense to make this the least painful as possible, he takes a deep breath and lets out a gasp as a hex slammed into his body. A painful, burning sensation is felt around his knees as they quite literally are suddenly on the back of his legs. With his balance completely off, he stumbles onto the ground as his precious parcel tumbles to the ground.
Before Damocles can pull him to his knees, he suddenly finds himself bound and gagged by three vile miscreants. A few patrons on the streets notice and begin to shout for aid, but too late the three wizards pop away with their kidnapped booty. The first person to arrive at the scene is Mr. Herbert followed by a pair of A.P.D. officers, who happened to be close by Twizzle and Banks. (Two of the famous four to be first cured, who had been assigned to Diagon Alley for press purposes).
Twizzle, a wizard with piercing eyes, and burly eyes glanced around, while Banks, a smiling gentleman most solemn, but calm approaches the witnesses. ”Can any of you tell us details about the incident that has just occurred?”
Mr. Herbert impatiently replies, ”Those bastards took Belby!”
”What?!” Twizzle roared as his head snapped up in shock.
Despite his feelings of shock, Banks motions to Twizzle to stem any more emotional outbursts as he says, ”Are you referring to Damocles Belby, sir?”
”Who else?” Mr. Herbert snapped, before biting back a surlier comment as Banks and Twizzle's eyes shake in shock and anger.
”Belby was in a hurry, and he didn't notice anyone behind him. I wouldn't have noticed, but he forgot one of his packages.” Mr. Herbert goes still as he gently bends down and picks up the slightly trampled package of Belby. ”I'll just hold on to this, gentlemen if you don't mind. I'm certain he'll want his package once he is returned.” (And if he was perfectly honest, Mr. Herbert had done it on purpose to rile Belby a bit more for fun. It was their strange little ritual, but one that they both enjoyed.)
”Thank you,” Banks sincerely said as he and Twizzle shared a look. They had not even had an opportunity to save their savior, and now he was in danger. ”But a moment, sir, if you, please.”
Mr. Herbert stands rigidly as he waits and to his surprise, the burly figure is gone, and in its place is a great large wolf. The large wolf brings his head closer to the package and wrinkles his nose at the strong scents but sniffs carefully trying to find the much-needed scent. Those watching including Mr. Herbert held with bated breath until the wolf pulls away and lets out a loud, sharp bark in confirmation, he had four scents, but no trail.