Boy and the Begining

March 19, Harry 10 years old, Crimea…

Harry had awoken on the top of a cliff in an area he would later learn was a range of mountains running parallel to the south-east coast of Crimea in the country of Ukraine of all places and that it had been around a month…a month since he had gotten sucked under the waves, sucked into yet another magical place, and finally spat out back into the real world. He had come out on the western half of the range where it dips into the Black Sea, and Harry was never gladder to take in the stark dark blue of the water from land side view.

He spent time walking, flying and generally lingering around the shores, taking the time to recover from his ordeal.

Harry eventually wandered into populated areas when he felt more secure in himself, his changed  body and self-reassurance that he wasn't about to fall ass over tea kettle into a fantastical round of magical tasks or eaten by monsters. he stress-cooked ALOT during those few weeks while he oriented himself back to "reality."

The first place he ended up was the Yalta City Municipality, a resort region with a modest population, located at the southern shore of Crimea – and apparently one of the one of the most famous recreational territories of the former Soviet Union in its time.

It had 21 towns and 9 villages in the region, but while Harry wandered through a fair few, he spent the most time in Nikitsky Botanical Garden slinking through the beautiful flora for a time, reading books that he had gathered from a gift shop, and a library; feeling fortunate to have found something in his native tongue.

Eventually he moved on when security guards became suspicious.

Harry wandered further into Ukraine and spent time sketching things that he saw, like great white pelicans that were native to south west Ukraine, an annoyed speckled ground squirrel native of the east Ukrainian steppes that glared at him a lot, and more scenic pictures like Lake Synevir, the largest lake in the Ukrainian Carpathians and one of Ukraine's 7 Great Wonders where he fished and sketched the breathtaking forested scenery and distant mountain ranges, though he retired from his campsite when he stumbled across the aimless spirit of a crying woman, whose tears flowed into the lake steadily (1)(1b).

Harry retired to the capital, Kyiv, to spend some time absorbing himself in mundane urbanity. He even snuck one evening into the session chamber of the Verkhovna Rada, the Parliament of Ukraine, when no one was around, and hovered above the property of the home of the president of Ukraine among other places enjoying a leisurely draw before security spotted his fleeting shadow and he had to skedaddle quickly.

He did other things during his two months in Ukraine:

He avoided being taken out by an Antonov An-225 Mriya and its huge wings while flying in some unexpected overcast clouds, and thus subjected to another of one of the numerous near heart attacks that Harry had experienced in his short life span (2).

He was also lucky enough to stumble across a launch site where he watched a rocket launch a self-made satellite and sparked his interest in astronomy for a time, books of this nature joining Harry's shrunken library.

Being the ambling wandering tourist that he was he didn't miss out on visiting some of the more tourist friendly places such as mountain ranges suitable for skiing, hiking and fishing. He even sneaked into a class catering to the kids of tourists and got a chance to learn how to ski, an awkward, yet fun experience.

He also learned other fun physical activities like learning to dance the Hopak from watching local dancers, which was even funner then skiing in his opinion and was especially enjoyable when he tried to incorporate some of the dance moves while flying, sometimes with embarrassing results, but all in good fun (3).

He snuck into concerts and listened to Ukrainian pop and folk music from performers like Vopli Vidoplyasova, Dakh Daughters, Ivan Dorn and Okean Elzy. And found himself humming tunes for weeks afterwards. (4)

When Ukraine was influenced by the Soviet Union there was an increased emphasis on physical education. Because of these, it left Ukraine with hundreds of stadia, swimming pools, gymnasia and many other athletic facilities. Harry was able to use some of his earnings from his work selling pictures to tourists and actually enter a few of them and enjoy the environment without sneaking around. The most popular sport is football, though, and Harry remembered how much he enjoyed the games he watched in some of the other countries he had visited and made sure to take time to watch some games, cheering and booing with the fans (5).

He wasn't just aimlessly wandering though (all though he was doing that) he had continued in his personal education in the realm of food.

Like many of the other countries that Harry had visited over the years, Ukraine had a rich and diverse cuisine heritage. The traditional Ukrainian diet of meats was usually chicken, pork, beef, fish and mushrooms, the latter of which Harry expanded his knowledge with mushrooms and learned of a wider variety of species that were edible and many of the recipes attached to them, which was a lot in Ukraine. Ukrainians also tend to eat a lot of potatoes, grains, fresh, boiled or pickled vegetables. Popular traditional dishes include varenyky (boiled dumplings with mushrooms, potatoes, sauerkraut, cottage cheese, cherries or berries), nalysnyky (pancakes) with cottage cheese, poppy seeds, mushrooms, caviar or meat), kapuśniak (soup made with meat, potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, millet, tomato paste, spices and fresh herbs), and borsch (soup made of beets, cabbage and mushrooms or meat), holubtsy (stuffed cabbage rolls filled with rice, carrots, onion and minced meat) and pierogi (dumplings filled with boiled potatoes and cheese or meat) which was one of the first dishes that Harry both ate and learned to cook by observing a clueless family through their home window one early evening. (6)

Harry even acquired his first bottle and taste of alcohol for the first time when a rather drunken individual smelling strongly of cigars and his previous evening's liquid dietary adventures, stumbled into Harry while he was wandering down a street in Lviv.

"I am the luckiest man in the world!" the man hic-coughed, then shoved a bottle of something into Harry's hands, "here! drink! Enjoy! On me! ooo weeee!"

Harry had chuckled and looked at his unexpected boon. A local beverage called Horika (7). It certainly would have put hair on his chest (if Harry were still capable of it) when he tried a sip out of curiously. It burned like the pit of hell, making him cough.

He still stored the bottle in his pack though. You never know when a bottle of the good stuff would come in handy.

He did enjoy another, decidedly less alcoholic beverage called Kefir, which tasted sort of like salty yogurt, though that enjoyment came more readily when he tried the fruit flavored variety.

He eventually began to leave Ukraine, seeking a more temperate climate then heading further north into Russia, despite his curiosity about the place, so instead of going North he veered towards Turkey and save Russia for another visit.

Ooo ooo ooo

April 2, Istanbul…

Harry hummed contentedly as he gnawed on a pastry as he dangled from the point of one of the sharply inclined towers of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a museum that was once a place of worship (8).

Harry bobbed his head to a popular local tune he had picked up and was playing on his portable player.

He looked up at his tail fondly. Despite the fact that it could be a trial at times, and he was certainly not going to be naked around any potential witnesses anytime soon, he found that if he wrapped his tail around his waist and wore a long enough shirt, it just looked like he wore a silky black furred belt.

He enjoyed hanging from his tail, and found the extra appendage when he was climbing around in forests, mountains and setting up camp to be handy.

His attention was caught when a figure waved at him from the point of another tower nearby.

"Oh!" he hummed, turning off his music and releasing his tail, allowed himself to slip into the embrace of gravity for a few seconds before swooping upwards lazily and perching beside the other figure.

"Hello me," he greeted.

"Hello me" the other greeted back.

With a nod the two separate seeming but identical boys grabbed each other's hands and melded back into Harry (9).

Harry took a moment to assimilate the information.

One part of him had spent the day hanging from various buildings and visiting historical sites in Istanbul while the other him had gone to peek in at restaurants and acquire the odd reference book in English.

*Other Harry's Memories…*

Harry had been scoping out a Esnaf lokantası (a restaurant for shopkeepers and tradesmen) when he had overheard a conversation between two gruff individuals near by the window where he had been scoping for a vantage point through the kitchen window.

"It's a travesty I tell you! I and those like me getting our pay docked 12 galleons, 12! Just because some wandering tourists and a few co-workers disappear and they have to hire some fancy curse breaker all the way from Serbia!"

"That far?" the second man whistled, "Though people disappearing instead of being sent wandering off all confused or let in is a bit of a serious matter I suppose…"

The first man waved his hand dismissively, "what does that matter? They will turn up eventually; I don't see why our pay has to be cut so drastically! I'm not even a handler even! I'm just administrative!"

The other man tsked in sympathy.

"It's bad enough that the fool barrier is broken, and the pay is horrible, but I am forced to eat and dress like a common muggle! I am a Pureblood! I deserve better than this!"

"I had wondered why you invited me out for dinner here when I came for my visit." The second clucked into his Turkish coffee as he took a genteel sip.

"Yes, well, the food isn't bad for muggle fair," the man grumbled reluctantly, "and the exchange rate into muggle money means I can, just barely, afford to wait for those incompetents to sort out the issue of the barrier so I can go back to work."

"I commend your sense of thrift," the second raised his cup before taking another sip, "it's things like this that make me glad I went into independent business."

The first snorted, "you…ahem, acquire objects of interest my friend, and sell them to the highest bidder for whatever you ask. I do envy your independence from lack wits my friend."

"Hmmm…yes, though I get my fair share of customers who are lacking in grey matter as well I'm afraid from time to time. Idiocy appears to be a universal malignancy I'm afraid."

The first chortled, raising his cup, "then let us toast the fools and be glad that we are not them."

"Agreed!"

The two clanked cups and dug into their rice and vegetable stew and talk dissolved into chatter about the rash of fevers lately.

Harry perched himself on the roof of the Esnaf lokantası and contemplated what he had overheard.

Granted, he didn't understand much of what was said, but he did pick up a few things, words that had sounded like some of the things that Rhubarb had prattled about, he remembered the term "muggle".

It seemed he had stumbled across another set of Abnormals, these ones were decidedly less intimidating then some of the creatures, deities, and monsters he had seen so far.

Unfortunately for Harry, when he tried to follow the two men after they left, they literally disappeared into thin air with only a loud pop each to announce their departure.

Grumbling to himself, he had floated from roof top to roof top idly, no longer interested in food viewing, deep in thought when he nearly collided with another figure who happened to be floating over the roof tops.

Both of them started and stared at each other.

The other floating figure was a woman dressed in flowing veils and was pale all over but for hints of color here and there, like something crafted out of translucent pearl.

There was a neigh, and Harry craned to the side, and spotted what must have been 20 horses in various stages of over exhaustion or ill health, looking strangely content with floating in the air, standing on nothingness behind her in a loose train.

"Um…" Harry scratched the back of his head, "Sorry for nearly bumping into you?"

The woman cocked her head, her eyes, pits of swirling darkness and eyed him severely before blinking then shrugging.

"It is no matter to me. I suppose with my awakening, there was bound to be others traversing the skies, though I am uncertain as to what you are at the moment. Given this country is a trade nexus between Europe and Asia, we are bound to get some foreigner over flow."

"Er, yeah," Harry agreed vaguely. Another Abnormal in less than an hour, Other Harry was going to be assimilating a rather interesting evening indeed.

"Just so you know, I have claimed this territory, but only if you're interested in the unpunished guilty and those who mistreat their horses."

"Uh, not my thing really," he said hastily.

"Well then, so long. just pass along what I told you in case you some across anyone else who has awoken alright?"

Harry nodded, out to sea.

They separated and the strange flying woman who might or might not have also been a spirit of some kind, continued on her way (10).

After that, Harry continued on his way back to the museum where his other self was waiting to rejoin, confused but relieved that it had not lead to anything horrible. It was somewhat reassuring that encounters with other Abnormals weren't always life threatening, but could be completely mundane.

*End of Other Harry's memory*

Harry hummed thoughtfully as soon as the memories digested properly then took to the air as the sun began to peek over Istanbul's skyline.

"Well today was full," he mused to himself in the quiet early morning.

Harry decided not to remain in Turkey much longer. He had not seen the two men return to the restaurant, and he was not keen on tempting fate with that flying horse stealing spirit lady so he pulled out a map and began looking for another destination.

Ooo ooo ooo

April 10, Iran…

Harry passed through Iran with a keen eye, watching for anything unusual.

Other than the spots he had come to recognize as the odd Hidden Place here and there (inaccessible of course), he didn't spy anything unusual at first until he stopped for a kip inside the Nayban Wildlife refuge (11).

He decided to make it a half week stop over to replenish some supplies and feel a little ground beneath his feet.

He set up camp in a place as out of the way as he could find, enjoying cool sips of water as he read one of the books on Persian mythology he had scrounged up somewhere.

According to the book, the characters of Persian mythology almost always fall into one of two camps: They are either good, or they are evil (no surprise there, being a common theme in other tales from around the globe so far). The resultant discord mirrored the nationalistic ideals of the early Islamic era as well as the moral and ethical perceptions of the pre-Islamic period, in which the world was perceived to be locked in a battle between the destructive Ahriman (roughly meaning angry man and considered a destructive spirt of some kind) and his hordes of demonic Dews (some sort of false gods or supernatural unsavory formed beings) and their Un-Iranian supporters, versus the Creator Ormuzd, (higher divine spirit of the old Iranian religion predating Islam) who although not participating in the day-to-day affairs of mankind, was represented in the world by the Izads (part of divinity and collectively represent the good powers under Ohrmuzd) and the righteous Ahlav (those who walk the path of truth) (12).

Harry hummed in thought as he considered what he had read. Truthfully, he was curious about what would happen should he come across some sort of sacred being like Ohrmuzd. He reasoned if blokes that important were around, they would likely not care about Harry. He dismissed the section on the major players and turned his attention to another chapter, flipping through the book randomly to make his choice.

He was just about to read about some epic battle when the tree that Harry had been leaning against suddenly shuttered, then with a deep creek, bowed under the weight of something rather heavy and Harry's vision was filled with two large golden eyes.

Yelping, he skidded away, tail puffed out, from under the tree, "Bad Day! Bad Day!" patting his chest to keep his heart inside as he took in the supernatural amalgamation that was currently preening its feathers (13).

It was roughly the size of a man that looked like a peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion.

After his brain felt comfortable with what he was seeing, he carefully pulled his book towards him and, since the creature seemed uninterested in attacking him for the moment, hastily flipped through the book (suspecting or hoping that it was local) until he came across a chapter with a similar illustration.

Simurgh

"…This fascinating creature from Persian myth is a benevolent, mythical flying creature…"

Harry relaxed a tad, that was somewhat reassuring, especially given the claws that were bigger than his head, though he didn't completely relax his guard. He could only take these tales with a grain of salt after all; they contained truths but were not truth themselves.

"…The simurgh is inherently benevolent and unambiguously female. Being part mammal, she suckles her young. The simurgh has teeth…," Harry eyed said teeth as it…she, yawned, "…It has an enmity towards snakes, and its natural habitat is a place with plenty of water…"

A place like this most likely, he just hoped the creature didn't have a thing against those who talked to snakes.

"…Iranian legends consider the bird so old that it had seen the destruction of the world three times over. The simurgh learned so much by living so long that it is thought to possess the knowledge of all the ages. In one legend, the simurgh was said to live 1,700 years before plunging itself into flames…"

Harry whistled, impressed despite himself, though when he looked at the creature, he found it cleaning one of its copper coloured wings with a long tongue.

"…The simurgh was considered a purifier of the land and waters and bestow fertility…"

"Oh well, you're an important one then," he mused out loud. The Simurgh barked in agreement and set to work on her other wing.

He set the book closed and waited for the bird (?) to finish its ablations.

After a while, Harry was lightly dozing when the creature nudged him gently with a narrow muzzle. It was actually quite beautiful in a way, once you got used to it.

"Right, it's nice to meet you and all, but since you're determined to settle in my campsite, I'll leave you to your business and…" His rambling was cut short when he felt himself flat on his back, the creature pinning him carefully with one of her alarmingly sharp looking feet.

He froze not daring to do anything in case he got sliced open.

Then the creature began nosing around its chest feathers and removed a golf ball sized seed, and with a delicate precise crunch, easily demolished it in her teeth.

Harry blinked as a wave of drool and seed juice rained on his face and directly into his eyes were his glasses had been flung away in the position change.

He blinked at the eyes and face full.

Then he yelped as his eyes became extremely warm, the world fuzzing out completely for a second then re-emerging with a clear crispness that made him gasp.

"I…I can see…I can see so clearly!" Harry exclaimed in surprise.

Huffing, the creature gave a woof of satisfaction and with that, let him up then flew off before Harry could properly thank her for whatever she did.

He wiped sticky fluid off his face and with his new vision, sat back down with his book in a hammock he had set up between two trees as tried to get some sleep, though sleep was long in coming.

Ooo ooo ooo

April 15, Turkmenistan… (14)

Harry had to admit that Turkmenistan had the most beautiful of the flags he had seen whipping in the breeze in all his travels. He learned, during his time there that the country had the most detailed national flag in the world. It had a green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five beautifully patterned carpet guls (designs used in producing rugs) stacked above two crossed olive branches, a white waxing crescent moon, and five white five-pointed stars appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe. (15)

He hummed and took a picture from where he was currently perched in the wee morning hours in Ashgabat.

He pocketed the camera and pulled out his map as he considered his route.

From what he could make out of the map he had acquired from a nearby hotel, the M37 was the main road to travel when in the country and seemed to stay vaguely to the outer areas of the country. He had decided to follow it for now as he headed in the general direction of Tajikistan before finally hitting China.

He nodded to himself and took to the air.

Ooo ooo ooo

April 17, Merv…(16)

Harry should have known that after a few weeks of relative calm that something was bound to happen to him at some point.

In this case it was as he was visiting Merv, a major oasis-city, located near Mary, that something of the more unusual variety was afoot.

First off, the timing of his arrival was a bit early. He knew it was likely that visiting tourists (not turned off by the rather strict visitor's visa), maintenance and the occasional archeologists would be around somewhere, but to his surprise, the entire place was completely deserted, even cars were left untouched in the blazing sun.

Harry landed wearily, eyeing his surroundings.

It was quiet. To quiet.

And then, as he ventured further in, he saw what had driven the people away.

It was a huge spring, and judging by its formation it was new. Not only that, but before Harry's eyes, he watched as great horses, the colour of the spring's foam, merged from the water and galloped off.

Thankfully, it was a rather benign encounter, as the Spring Horses (as he called them) didn't seem inclined to care about his presence.

Harry sketched a few of them, but after a time, he grew board of the spectacle, and flew off. (17)

Ooo ooo ooo

April 24, Uzbekistan…

His stay in Uzbekistan was relatively uneventful, barring the rather peeved Normal whom had caught Harry peeking in his window while he was cooking and threw a shoe with precision accuracy at Harry's head. The fact that the man was on the fifth floor of an apartment building also seemed to be a factor to his agitation. Harry fled quickly, nursing a bruise for his troubles.

Ooo ooo ooo

May 10, Tajikistan…(18)

In the mountainous landlocked sovereign country of Central Asia known as Tajikistan, he spent most of his time hiking through some of the most breath taking mountain scenery he had seen yet. He would sneak around camping locals during these hikes and listen to their songs and stories, and stole a rather nice looking red sweater from a Russian mountain climber.

He also tromped through rivers, water meadows, broad-leaved and juniper forests, mountain shrub land and sub-alpine meadows, taking pictures or sketching local wildlife and generally enjoying himself.

The only Abnormals he encountered during his hike was a when group of invisible imps kept stealing any cheese or dairy products that he set aside while preparing his meals, they also shaved him bald in his sleep, but it grew back every single time and they eventually left off when it kept growing back the next day. Harry was never able to catch the wily pests, and only had some local folklore to derive his assumptions. (19)

Ooo ooo ooo

May 12, boarder between Turkmenistan and China…

Harry was flying over a mountain range that that stood between Turkmenistan and China, the Sun low in the sky as twilight was falling and giving jagged peaks and pregnant shadows a fiery caress when something flew out from the hidden craggy crevices.

Harry sucked in a startled breath when he bore witness to what can only be a herd of winged stags and does. They had the tail, feathers, and wings of a giant raptor and the head, torso and legs of a deer. It had varying shades of white, cream, tan and grey feathers with bands of black and the eyes were large and closer together then what was normally found on a deer with swirling amber and dark blues.

The herd, or flock, however you called them, separated then began flying in pairs, circling each other, then separating. Sometimes they would linger for only a moment, and sometimes they would remain with a partner longer.

The longer that a pair flew tighter, the more complicated the flight, the more intertwined they became, and they would shoot upwards so high in to the sky that they were barely discernible to the naked eye.

Harry watched it all on a thin cliff edge, having taken cover when they began pouring outwards and felt that deep sense of awe at the beauty of these creatures that he was fairly certain were not of the more normal local fauna.

It was nice to be reminded that there was beauty and wonder in the Abnormal world as well at times (20).