LONDON CALLING

"When the bad goggie made the fire," Abbey said. Marcus looked at her.

"The night of the fire? When the bad doggie made the fire," Marcus asked Abbey to clarify.

"I no like fire," she said quietly, looking at her plate.

"Abs," Angus said softly, "look at me." Abbey looked up at him, and he knew the look. It was the look she had when she talked about James, and now she also had an association of fire with James. "The fire is out. You saw your house today. We put out the fire. Remember Marcus took you and your mama out of the house. Where were you when Marcus found you?"

"I runned and runned. Bad goggie outside. I no like him...." Abbey said.

"Oh, that's right," Marcus said. "She's telling you the truth. I found her running through the house, frightened out of her poor little mind. I scooped her up, and Khaat and I ported out for Hogsmeade.

"It's okay, Abbey, We don't like the bad doggie either," Angus said. "We're not going to let him touch you." Sitting beside Khaat, Nigel saw Khaat tense up, and he saw the fear in her face. He reached over and laid his hand on her arm, and, not looking at Nigel, she took a deep breath and tried to relax.

"None of us like him, Abbey," Robert said.

"He come back," Abbey said, chasing a potato around on her plate."

"I hope not," Brian said.

"He come back!" Abbey fairly shouted at him in defiance.

"Abbey," Marcus said, "he's planning on coming back?" She nodded furiously. "I don't know about you lot, but I'm going to take her seriously and err on the side of caution," Marcus told them.

Ruby looked at Abby listened to her words "Your ganddads right , none of us liked him, and we'll not let him hurt you or your mum again" she said moving to be able to give her a hug as she spoke " we'll look for kitty." she said then looked to Marcus and nodded " agreed, a little preperation might be needed." she said glancing at Angus as she held the little girl against her.

Jess nodded her head as did Jack " agreed." Jess said feeling somethign in the air, a looming feeling of dread. " okay for now though lets enjoy the lull in fighting." she said as Jessie returned from the barn and washed up befroe making a plate and sitting with them to eat.

Abbey curled into Ruby, always glad for some comfort.
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"He got monsters." She look at Jack. "Big, big monster. Like a house!' Marcus looked at her and frowned deeply. Khaat looked at her, and Marcus clearly saw the look of something familiar in her face. She was realizing she knew something, something that corroborated Abbey's words.

"Khaat," Marcus said, "if you know something..."

"I saw them too," she said, "in my sleep. There were two of them. T-R-O-L-L-S." She spelled it to keep from speaking the word in Abbey's presence. She's right."

Ruby held Abby rocking her gently " well we won't let them get to you, Right Angus?" she said looking at him " you'll blow them away with your new gun, poof" she said chukaling softly. She heard Khaat and nodded she understood " might be worth us checking in with teh guys at the ranch, just to tighten things against the T.R.O.L.L.S" she spelled the word just as Khaat had done so not to scare Abby.

Jess and Jack paused in eating to listen as did Kaden and Jessie. " we'll double check things here so don't worry, I'll get the grounds men doubled." Jack said " and make sure all animals are in the barn."

Jessie looked to Kaden and then spoke to Brian " we'll get extra kits and potions made..just incase better to have them and not use them than need them and not have them" Kaden said to Jessie nodding his head as he ate.

"Well, if there is a good thing in it," Robert said, immediately looking for a weakness, "it is that they are, by and large, incredibly stupid--as in negative IQ points stupid. And slow. All brawn and no brain cells at all. The key will be, probably, to outthink and out maneuver them if they come. We need to have an idea of what moves to use, but my thought is that we would need to plan for operating from a distance as much as possible. And to watch for any of them that thought they could chuck something at you."

"Does your brain ever stop working?" Nigel looked at him, scowling.

"No," Robert replied.

"I'll do some research to see if we can't develop some sort of a protection spell like Dumbledore's age line. Maybe we can do one that would keep them away from the barn," Gabe said. "Might be worth a try."

"Well, we could move all the animals here, just as a precaution. It would be tight quarters, but we could manage," Brian said. "I know the barn at my place is bigger, but we could squeeze them all together here if we had to."

"We'll keep it in mind," Robert said. "The problem is that we don't know how much time we have. And I fully expect they'll go to the estate. They seem to still have a fix on the estate and not on this place."

"We could also evacuate to Paris or Colorado if we had to," Angus said." It isn't ideal but they are options."

"A good thought too," Robert said.

"You will not be doing any combat," Nigel told Robert. "By rights, you and Edward aren't ready, either of you, but you definitely won't be. Your hands have a long, long way to go."

"And I cannot be a liability to you all," Robert sighed.

"As long as you can think, you are not a liability," Brian insisted. "You trained us to fight. We'll take it up. You don't need to."

Ruby nodded as did Kaden, Jessie and Jess along with Jack "Brains is worth just about as much as brawn." Jack says chukaling Jess nodded

"Your our motivation and leader." she said " and sometimes leaders lead and not fight, we do the leg work while you recover." Jess said and smiled " we'll do as you say, to a point" Ruby looked down to see Abby sleeping against her and smiled.

"Sorry Khaat looks like some one tired themselves out running after Henry." she said softly so not to wake her. " I'll put her to bed." she slowly stood up and walked to Abby's room pulling abck the covers she changed her clothes to a pair of PJs and placed her in the bed." sleep well Abby" she said softly setting a small night light glowing next to Abby and checking all doors and windows were closed and locked so nothing could get in she also set a few protrction spells around the room then left to head back down. " she didn't wake once, I also strengthened the protection spells for her room too."

"Thank you, Ruby," Khaat said. "She's had a busy day. I'll go stay with her tonight. I don't want her having nightmares and not having someone there if she wakes."

"We'll discuss that," Brian said. "There are other options."

"Thank you," Robert told them.

"You know, Robert," Kate said. "Our hippogriff is a feisty fellow, and there isn't much that frightens him. If they do come, perhaps you should take one of us with you, and take the hippogriff and take to the air. How many times have you said that one of the advantages to playing chess is that you can see the whole board at once. Well, perhaps you could take to the air and relay anything helpful to those on the ground through a Sonorus spell."

"Kate, that is bloody brilliant," Angus said, impressed.

"So long as he doesn't fall of the stupid thing," Nigel said. "Not sure how he'd hang on, so there's that problem."

"There's an old metallurgist in the Carpathian mountains that makes armor and saddles for them," Edward said.

"And here we go," Angus whispered to Ruby. "This is where someone says 'Angus, why don't you go get us one?' Not looking forward to a hike in the mountains in Romania. Somebody's determined to get me to go there."

Ruby sat back down next to Angus and smirked hearing him " well we could use it as a working vacation if they do ask." she said taking his hand in hers."Besides I've never been to the mountains in Romania." she thought about it and sat waiting. Her hand moved to the stone around her neck.

Jess stood up and with Jack gathered the plates taking them to the kitchen to the washer. Loading it she set it going then turning on the kettle for a fresh pot of coffee for every one.

"I'll go get dessert, shall I?" Michael asked. "Tiramisu, Everyone?"

"Kate dearly loves it," Robert said. "Better serve it up quickly, or she'll just go in and get the entire pan of it and a fork."

"He's only saying that because its true," Kate laughed, taking the occasion to lighten the mood by making fun of herself.

"Then I'll go get it," Michael said. He went into the kitchen to serve up squares of tiramisu to everyone with the coffee that Jess made.

"Well, you're right. It isn't' the hiking that gets to me there. Its the doing it by oneself. Its rough terrain, but you're good at distances, so I shouldn't see why you couldn't manage it," Angus told Ruby. "Some of it is easy, and some of us is effing horrendous and incredibly rough going. If we were to go, you would need some basics on rock climbing. Michael's the man for that. Don't let his age or his size fool you. When he gets a climbing rope, he's in his element."

"I know the old blighter you're talking about," Gabe said. "Maybe we could get him to meet us partway with a saddle. Austria is a good halfway point. And its a very short jump from Paris to Salzburg."

"I like Salzburg," Angus cast Ruby an amused smile.

"We should have a saddle anyway," Kate said. "Can you see if he can rush us one?"

"Certainly," Gabe said. Michael came in, floating a coffee tray ahead of him and another with squares of tiramisu elegantly plated on dessert plates, and each piece garnished with beautiful curls of chocolate. He served it to everyone.

Kate tucked into her piece, savoring every little morsel.

"Utter perfection," Kate said. "Could you make this again for my birthday? And Guy Fawkes Day, and Christmas, and Boxing Day..." They all laughed.

"Michael," Angus said, "are you able to climb?"

"I haven't tried..." Michael began.

"He broke some vertebrae in his back. Should be healed by now but I can't check him now," Robert told Nigel.

"But I can. I'll see to it after dinner. Then we'll know."

"In the meantime, I'll have a word with the hippogriff, shall I?" Kate asked.

"The weekend is coming," Robert said. "Brian, suppose we could do a 48 hour crash course on tacticals so we're ready for the trolls?"

"Well, you might get to go on a camping trip this weekend," Angus told Ruby. "How do you feel about pup tents or 'build-your-own-shelter's?"

Ruby listened and smiled "Oh even better and Salzburg?" she said " whats it like?" her curiosity now peaked. " maybe it could be part of my trainning, out door servival." she said " oh nice and build your own sounds good, and I agree if your with some one it makes the exsperiance worth it." she then started to think about what she'd need to take with her, water bottles hiking boots, dry provishions incase they can't find anything along the trail to eat, penknife and cooking pot.

Jess chuckled looking at Ruby deep in thought. " hey enjoy your desert befor the coffee goes cold." she joked knowing it already was served cold. Jack ate his and sat back in his chair already finished.

"now that get my seal of aproval, thank you Michael" he said tapping his stomach lightly.