Finding Femininity

Angus had taken the supplies with him because he knew his own likelihood to just keep working once started at it. The winter had been hard on the riding trails. He rode them and repaired them, one spell at a time. The crater in the very back of the property had only gotten bigger and deeper. Part of it, he thought, was natural erosion. The rest of it was looking like they had been back. Digging. Looking. Angus put layer and layers of spells into place to try to fill up the hole, make it impenitrable. The distraction had worked for several months, but now it looked like they were trying to go off in every direction again, looking for the house. He destroyed every single tunnel and then filled up the hole.

It took massive amounts of his magic and his energy. Robert was always better and stronger at this stuff than Angus was. Angus could do it, but it wore him out. Before long, he was sitting under a tree, drinking the no longer cold water. He leaned against the tree, utterly exhausted. There was no way, though, that he was letting them get to main house. No matter what.

As he was sitting, resting, his eyes shut, someone suddenly cast a spell and he found himself standing, chained to the tree, his wand thrown away across the woods. And then he heard the crackle of flame and the heat of it. He looked up. They'd set the tree on fire. He looked ahead of him and saw a really bad phony looking death eater costume. They fired at him, stunning him. He fell limp, dazed, unable to free himself from the burning tree. He heard the figure apparate out, leaving him to be burned alive.

The girls had laid down for a nap when Cassisy looked out the french doors something didn't look right black smke came from a corner of the rantch she knew Angus had rode off in. something told her that was not right . she felt steven walk up behind her and see it " saddle up, troouble " he said and she dove as quick as she could to the barn taking a tan horse she saddled up jumping on she rode hard to get to where the smoke came from steven hot on her heels, she felt her heart beating hard and her mind focusing what could be doing it and why. Then she saw it a tree on fire and some one chained to it " Angus!" she said realiing who it was.

Quickly she jumped down taking her wand she pressed it to the chains she moved to hold him against her as she spoke . "Diffindo" she said and cut the chains off him while steven cast "Aguamenti" aiming his wand at the tree to stop the fire spreading any further. Cassidy now with Angus's full weaight against her moved him away from the tree and checking him over. " Angus..Angus!, talk to me ?" she said a slight panic in her voice as she looked down at him then back over her shoulder at Steven. Taking out a small flask of cold water she let a few drops touch his lips then dampening her sleeve she wiped away the smoke from his face.

Angus began to cough and choke as he began to feel fresh air entering his lungs again. "The girls!...home!" he tried to order. He had a terrible feeling that this was just a distraction and that they knew where the house was. "Go! The babies!...." he coughed. He looked at Steven, unable to gather enough of himself yet to tell them that he believed firmly that they had been breeched and the babies were in massive danger. The last thing he wanted was to find that when they had come to rescue him they had left the girls underprotected. They could be easily taken right now, and Angus would rather die than to lose those babies.

Meanwhile at the house, Luther Burke apparated in past all of Robert's and Brian's protection spells. He laughed in triumph. "Not much of a palace for your princess, Robert," Burke thought out loud. "A little too redneck for my tastes. Well, well, well. Let's go find the little heiresses, shall we?" He strode down the upstairs hallway towards the downstairs, looking for the babies.

Cassidy loked at Steven then at Angus " Jess is there and jack , don't worry " but as she said that Steven aperated back to the farm leaving his horse behind . Cassidy sat him up " take it easy stevens gone back , jess and jack will not let anything happen to the girls " she said sitting back after a moment she stood up looking at the tree and surounding area it was then she heard the noise and glanced at Angus " I'll be back " she said and aperated to the house steven had his wand drawn as ah fiugre fired back she twisted to naraliy being hit drawing ehr wand she saw jess with the girls and spoke , she knew Robert would want him alive and so cast "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS. " the spell winding its way to him but he dodged but her next spell reeatched its target "Incarcerous " and chains wrapped around him. steven ran over to him and pickied him up. Cassidy turned her back moving to jess who was huddled with jack in a corner with both babies , jack had a burn mark on his back and jess her arm.

Steve threw him across the room his anger now clear asnd in the open his fist raining down puntches on the mans nose, cheeks and ribs so hard he felt at least two brake under his rain of puntches as he let loose soon he steped back " you are a low life scum " he said deep anger clear in his voice as he glanced back at assidy, jack and jess the man aperated away where he didn't know and he puntched the ground the man had been laid in " god dam it not again!!" he shouted .

Robert could not put his concern for Khaat out of his mind. He slipped away in a quiet moment of the afternoon, long enough to slip away to Khaats house to see if she and Brian had returned. He apparated into the middle of utter chaos, finding the guards in total disarray.

"What the hell happened in here?" He demanded, wand drawn. "Is everyone accounted for?" He looked around the room and saw some minor battle wounds and saw the babies safe. "Who the hell got in here? And how did they get past all my protection spells?" He began searching for evidence. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.

Cassidy moved to Robert and spoke " single male, came in on foot he chained Angus to a burning tree as a distraction, hes fine , he was after the babies i chained him but he must have broken the charms some how as he aperated away , jack and jess and steven fought him off " she said and looked at him " if its all right with you i'll fetch Angus " she looked at him " then we can start cleaning up and re enforcing the spells erm...if its ok with you sir" she said realizing she mayhave over stepped her mark a little.

Aperating back to the tree she sighed and walked over to Angus , kneeling beside him " hey told you i'd come back" she said and smiled " come on Robert is here and he needs a brifing " she said. she moved him to stand her arms wrapped around him as she aperated back to the house laying him on the couch as she spoke " guess its your turn on here" she said and smiled down at him.

"Thank you," Angus said. "Steven,...the horses..." he coughed. Robert walked over to Angus, seeing that clearly Angus had nearly been killed.

"Steven? You have horses out there alone? Go get them. Take care of them. I'll see to the injuries," Robert said quietly. "Cassidy, go with him. No one moves alone right now."

He sat down on the edge of the sofa and checked Angus. "You're lucky you're alive," he told Angus. He laid his hands on Angus's chest and cast spells to reduce the congestion and the irritation and inflammation from the smoke inhalation. That made it easier to breathe. The rest of it was just superficial. He took care of it easily. "Rest," he told him. "I'll take care of things."

He looked at Jack and Jess. Robert went over to Jess and healed her burn fairly easily with a healing spell. Jack's burn was bigger, so he had to use a bigger, more powerful spell. But they seemed to work and seemed to take away the angry looking burn marks from both of them. "Are the girls okay?" he finally asked Jack and Jess after he had tended to them both. From what he could see, the babies looked fine.

Cassidy looked up and then stood movng to Robert when he said she was to go with steven she nodded " yes sir" and she aperated avbck to the clearing where the horses still stood , steven grabbed Angus's and mounted his own , Cassidy mounted hers and rode back to the rantch , taking of the daddle she stabled the horse and brushed it clean of the soot. she brushed her hand over the hourses neck and sighed " thank you" she whispered to it seeing the animals ears twitch. Moving back inside she headed to the kitchen and flicked on the kettle for a pot of tea or coffee she too out the scones and placed some on a plate along with some cream and jam. Bringing them threw she paced them on the table brushing aside some glass that had landed on it, she used a cloth and cleaned off the table so they could sit and drink.

Moving over to Angus she looked down at him " would you like a drink or something i made tea and coffee, I can get you some juice " she asked and looked at the distruction around them , slowly it was repaired she saw jess with the girls and she sighed . she wondered did she do something wrong by going to help Angus , thought steven had returned quickly to the girls she still felt she could have done something diferently.

"I'm fine," Angus said. "Thanks. Robert, we need to send for Brian."

"Well, Kate hasn't told me where he is," Robert sighed. "And she doesn't plan to."

"I know where he is," Angus said.

"What?" Robert frowned. Angus drew the envelope out of his back jean pocket and handed it to Robert. "I dont' know whether Brian did this on purpose or just screwed up, but here it is." Robert opened the envelope and looked at the letter Brian had sent earlier in the day. He held it up to the light and looked at the watermark and laughed. "My guess is that he wasnt' thinking. Poor lad. He's on overload lately. Good job, Angus. Nice catch."

"Shall I go get him?" Angus asked.

"No," Robert said. He whistled for Archangel who flew in quickly as Robert penned a note. He put it in an envelope. "Go to Brian, Boy. Straight to Brian." The eagle set out gracefully across the skies.

Khaat had gone into the bedroom to change for an evening out--one that Brian had promised her. Candlelight. Five star cuisine. Romance. He had ordered her roses. And then he saw Archangel arrive on the windowsill. He sighed heavily. He had the sneaking feeling his evening was about to be ruined. He didn't want to go get the note from the eagle, but he reluctantly went to get it, wanting to take care of it before Khaat saw it. He petted the bird and took the note. The bird waited. Brian opened the envelope, and his blood ran cold when he read it. He took out a pen and scribbled a three word reply, "We're coming home." He gave it back to the bird. "Home," he told the bird. The bird flew off obediently. He had no choice. Ready or not, he had to bring Khaat home.

Cassidy nodded and moved back to the kitchen tidying it up the mess that had been caused pots and pans lay all over the floor she picked each one up and put it back now realizing she had not sone anything wrong. ooking at ehr reflection she realizd her face was dirty taking a damp cloth she began to clean her face off . The tee shirt once wite now showing black soot marks but she could take care of that later. she moved into the livng room and picked up a chair and repiroed a vase picking it up she placed it back on the table it had come from moving around the room with steven and jess cleaning up till it looked the same she knew Brian would be home now and he would feel they could not cope alone.