by Dani Swanson
“So, you are going to ignore this evil? You’re going to act like nothing is wrong?” Charles asked.
“No. I won’t ignore it. But I won’t go out looking for it either.”
It took a few years until the Grimalkin was proven to still being alive and had made its way to the Winding Woods, but by this time Thea had prepared all the fairies, elves, wisps, centaurs and boggles to know what to do when she made it to them.
Thea waited until the whispers of the woods confirmed that the Grimalkin was getting closer to their home. She took a chunk of the purple crystal and ground it into a powder. She then had Dean blow the mixture into her face. As she absorbed the powers of the crystal, she felt the power grow within her stomach as she did before.
“Now what?” Dean was concerned as he watched her veins glow through her skin.
“Now I’m ready to protect our family.” She placed her hand on her stomach that was now showing she was very much pregnant. “We’ve left the Grimalkin alone, and it should have returned the favor.”
Thea was able to create a force field around their houses that extended out to the woods.
She watched the darkness every night. She and Fig would sit on the stoop, watching the trees. Most nights they would sit without event, but one night when the moon was barely shinning through the trees, Fig’s fur stood on end and he started to growl as his eyes were fixated on the far end of the yard.
“Shhhhhh, sweet boy, it’s okay. I see her too.” She cooed, as she smoothed his fur.
Thea smirked as she hummed a tune, rubbing her belly as she felt her baby kick inside.
The bright yellow eyes of the shadowy black cat watched them from the darkness as she paced, trying to find a way into their homestead, but with no luck. Thea’s powers had grown strong enough to keep the Grimalkin at bay. She waved to the Grimalkin as she brought her little orange cat into the house and listened for its roar before shutting the door and joining the brothers for supper.
“Is she out there?” Dean questioned, as she set the table.
“She is.” Thea said, as she sat down at the table, dropping some chicken into Fig’s bowl. “But I feel she’ll be having a visitor soon.”
Thea nodded to the window; the brothers gazed out to see the Baba Yaga chasing the Grimalkin deep into the Winding Woods catching her by the scuff of her neck like she was an ordinary house cat.
Thea just smiled. “All the magical creatures throughout the world have different powers than they had before; it turns out I’m not the only one that digested parts of the crystal. I told you, it’s someone else’s turn to fight evil for a while. I’m sure we’ll have a new beginning to an adventure to keep us busy.”
Charles smiled and did his best to pretend to agree, he place an eye patch over his eye. He didn’t want to ruin the story of their next adventure.
