LONDON CALLING

Jack walked with Michael and nodded " you want to cast a Revelio Charm." he asked slipping out his wand ready for when Micahel said they should. He heard him mention the wolves and nodded " yeah , oh I already warned them to not go near the farm or barn or I'll be right on their tails" he said to Michael as they walked " meh no hike is too bad for me, it'll give me a bit of cardio work out thats all." he added with a chuckle.

Jess held both Foot stools in her arms " Kate please help what do I call them?" she asked as she tied a small peice of red ribbon to the tastel free one and a blue one to the one with tastles so she could tell which ones were hers. "oh, what about fish and chips?" she said chuckaling softly at the joke.

"Yes, but what I was thinking about was whether or not we could make an agreement with them. More or less, hiring them to be alarm systems for the farm, and instead of paying them in cash, we'd pay them in food. Most of us can be food motivated, after all. And all they would need to do is to alert us if there is some sort of intruder," Michael said. He flicked his wand at the fence along the property line, and so far, it showed nothing of any abnormality. They'd have to keep looking.

"You could call the girl Sugar and call the boy Spice," Kate suggested. "Or, there are a lot of famous couples through history. You could name them after one of those famous couples. Maybe Cleo and Markie, for Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. If you want a brother and sister pair, you could try Hansel and Gretel or some other famous brother and sister pair. I knew someone once who had a brother and sister pair of cats, and since she loved chocolate, she named the girl Coco and her brother Bean."

Jack listened and watched him, " hum..I could talk to them about that, see if they'd agree, Im sure like you said the mention of free food would help."He said "I'll go this afternoon." he says watching Michael check the protection spells.

Jess chuckled and listened to Kate say several good names then she spoke the last name she said "oh I like coco for the female and bean for the male" she said noting how the male ran into things a lot. " he is a bit like Mr Bean." she said laughing. Glancing out the window she saw Jack and Michael walking away from the farm " looks like there on their way towards the mountain." she said just as coco ran up to her pawing to be picked up which she did.

"They may be on the right track," Kate replied to Jess. "I bet they're going to walk the perimeter to make sure that there aren't any holes in the unplottable spell. Certainly would be hard to do that at night, but if they're lucky, they'll be able to walk it before the rain sets in. Maybe they'll find a clue too, but even if they don't, it will help if the farm goes back to being unplottable. But, on the other hand, how did they find the farm in the first place to punch a hole in our unplottable spell? Makes me wonder if someone we used to trust has perhaps turned against us. That could be dangerous for all of us if that happened."

She watched how Coco and Bean were already taking to Jess so quickly.

"They're friendly little buggars, aren't they?" she laughed. Then she decided to see if Abbey knew anything from last night.

"Abbey, do you remember the shadow from last night?" Kate asked. Abbey nodded. "Do you anything about it?"

"Black. Bad. Naughty," Abbey said.

"Yes. It certainly was. Did you see if it was a boy or a girl?" she asked.

"Girl. Bad girl," Abbey said. "She said she a boy, but she a girl. She telled me a fib."

"Did she?" Kate was highly interested now. "Good girl, Abbey. Anything else?"

"She sees things too, like you do, Gam."

"She's a seer, like us?" Kate asked. Abbey nodded. That made sense. It made perfect sense to Kate. "She's a seer, which is how Abbey was able to learn something about her. But she's a shapeshifter who is into dark magic, and, she's probably into some illusion spells too. She could be a difficult adversary. The boys might need our seer abilities, and we might need their brawn. This could be very different from what we've come up against in the past."

Jess watched as Jack and Michael moved further away from the house then turned back to Abby and Kate listening to her talking. " it is confusing as to how they found us." she said and sat down facing Abby. " okay so a female, sounds more and more like that shifter Robert spoke of." she said " and I agree with your sugestion, Jessie will be here this afternoon for the night shift. " she said noting how quickly Jesie had left to see Kaden.

Jack moved towards the mountain as he did a single wolf walked out of the trees and close to them. Sitting down it looked at Michael and showed its teeth to him. " Hey hes a good guy" Jack said " Michael this is the Alpha of the pack, hes got an attitude." Jack told him facing him Jack comunicated to the wolf about the agreement. With a snort the wolf headed into the woods again. " Hes going to see if the others will agree as they have cubs on the way and this would help them too." he said to Michael.

"I think you're right," Kate told Jess. "And if that's the case, Gelding pretty much walked right onto our property last night and could have had us if Abbey hadn't alerted us. If that's the case, we have to increase our security significantly. I'm sure Robert's already considered that possibility, so I hope that Jack and Michael come back with some helpful information. Changing the subject, though, what sort of soup and what sort of savory scones should we make for lunch? We'll have to think about starting to bake the scones soon."

Michael simply watched as Jack handled things with the wolf. Michael really didn't want to have to hurt the wolf, so he felt that letting Jack deal with it was the best way.

"Can't blame him for wanting to take care of his pack. It's basically no different than what we're doing, protecting our own pack, in a way," Michael said. "It certainly could be mutually advantageous for us both help each other. We help them, and they help us. The next time you talk to him, you might warn him of this shadow creature we saw and advise them to not try to take it on. It would be beyond their abilities to deal with. They need to keep their distance and avoid any sort of encounter. In fact, it would be better if they just hid if they see it. If they can put some distance between them and the creature, then they could alert us, when they're at a safe distance away."

Jack nodded at Michaels words " I'll do that but if I recall they were out last night so would have seen hat happened." he said just as the wolf returned. Jack moved to kneel infront of him and spoke to him nodding as he did " okay they agree, and they did catch something last night, nasty was what they called Her." Jack looked back at Michael " he also says thought your human, your welcome on their pack lands, he says theres some wonderful views at the top of the mountain, if your intrested." Jack stood up slowly and backed away. " He seem to be hinting, I think that we'd find something up there."

Walking back Jack looked up at the sumit and then back to Michael " so you up for a climb?" he said chuckaling as he stood arms crossed over his chest as he stood. " I bet you the thickes peices of bacon, which I have to cook at dinner I make it before you." he said teasing tone.

Michael watched Jack continue to negotiate with the wolves, and Michael was pleased that Jack had managed to be successful and had even gotten additional clues from the wolves.

"Excellent, Jack," Michael said. "Let's go. I'm always up for a climb and a wager. You're on, so long as we put safety ahead of any wager. If there's the slightest sign of trouble, any wagers are off. Deal?" Michael knew the higher grounds here, but he hadn't climbed them in awhile, so he was looking ahead to the challenge.

Kate went to the kitchen and found some Asiago cheese, some fresh Parmesan, some lovely sharp cheddar, some shallots and scallions, some garlic. She also had a couple of large clay pots outside the kitchen door that held all sorts of fresh herbs for cooking. She got out some flour and other ingredients to make some scones, feeling a need to start the baking.

"How many different sorts of scones do you think we should make?" she called to Jess. "I might make a batch with some cheese. What do you think?"

Jack laughed and nodded " safty first and agreed, now lets go, slow poke" he said making his way to the base of the mountain to begin climbing.

Jess smiled moving to the kitchen to help make the scones " knowing Jack hes going to be super hungry come dinnevoringr so I'd say all of them." she chuckled placing the flour and other ingrediants in a bowl and mixed them. Soon she sepreated the dough so they could add the other ingreidiants for flavoring " agreed, would be a nice savory one, oh lets use mozzarella to give it some stringgyness and some hearbs for flavor." she said looking over at Kate to see if she aggreed.

Michael dearly loved climbing, so he had no hesitation making his own way to the base of the mountain. He took a good look at it to determine the safest way up. "There," he pointed to Jack. "The rock is more stable, and there are more natural hand holds if we go up right there. Shall I give you a head start, Junior?"

"That works. I think you're right. We've never had any problems with lots of leftover food, that's for sure," she laughed. "I can do a scone with some caramelized onion and some roasted garlic, and then maybe I'll add some of that nice big pretzel salt for some crunch on the top," she said as she worked. "And I have something nice from Lizzie at Sparks. It's a really lovely sweet apricot mustard spread for the sandwiches. It's a really different spread that uses a good whole grain mustard, a little drizzle of honey and a bit of apricot jam. It has some tang and sweetness both. It does splendidly on ham sandwiches. And I think I have some fresh rocket greens. They'll have a little bit of a peppery bite. And we can add more cheese if someone wants sort of a gourmet ham and cheese."

"Gam!" Abbey followed them into the kitchen. "Gam!"

"What, Pet?" she looked down at Abbey.

"Candy?" she asked.

"Candy? At this hour of the morning?" Kate frowned. "What kind do you want?"

"Chockat," Abbey said, trying to say chocolate.

"Chocolate?" Kate said. " How about I give you one piece, and then maybe Aunt Jess can make us some scones with chocolate in them. What do you think, Auntie Jess? Can we find a way to put some chocolate in some scones?"