A Birth day

One of the puffs came too close to Angus and before Angus thought, he'd smacked it with his pad of paper like it was a softball. The thing let out a squeal of pain, and Ginger caught it.

"Not nice, Angus," she scowled at him unhappily.

"Sorry. It caught me by surprise" he said.

"You owe it an apology," she scolded him, handing him the puff. "Now make nice with it."

"Sorry," he told them puff hastily and handed it back to her.

"That wasn't even heartfelt. Do it again, and do it right," she handed it back to him and raced off to help get the others.

"Told off by a kid," Angus sighed

"Get used to it,," Marcus laughed. "At that age, they bloody think they know everything." It took them a few minutes but soon they had all the puffs put the little lime green one that had teal blue splotches that Angus had on his lap that Ginger wanted Angus to apologize again to.

"Take this damned thing, would you, please, Ru?" Angus asked. "And, no, we're not keeping it. Finn would probably eat it."

"Good job, Jack," Robert said. "I honestly don't know if Kate has been near death of if its a seer's thing, but she says she can see them. I'll have her go out and see if she can do anything with them before company comes."

"I'm already going," Kate said. She apparated over to the duplex and saw the door open, and inside there was some sort of chaos going on. It only took her a moment to see it was a pygmy puff round up. Kate gave clever call she had developed that was sort of like a little sing-song-ish tone, and the puffs came hopping towards here. "It's easy if you know how to do it," she told them. "I came to see if I might borrow Ginger for a few moments. I'd like her to help me in the barn with something."

"In the barn? Is it an animal?" Ginger asked. Kate nodded, and Ginger was out the door and off the porch before she remembered to ask. She looked back at Ruby. "It is okay, right?" she asked.

"Well, seers sometimes get exposed to all sorts of things on both sides of the veil, I'm convinced," Robert said to Jess. "As I heard tell, Luna Lovegood, who was in Khaat's year, could see thestrals not because she had come close to death herself but because she had seen her mother die. So maybe that opens a seer's abilities up in all sorts of ways."

"Absolutely fine," Angus said. "She's always welcome to go with any of our family here."

"Okay, bye," Ginger said, scooping up the container of pygmy puffs and dashing after Kate. Kate took her into the barn and to the stall of the thestrals. Ginger's eyes grew wide and she went over to them and gently introduced herself and tarated to pet the thestral mare. "They're amazing," she said softly. "What are they? Are they a sort of pegasus?"

"You would think, wouldn't you?" Kate smiled. Ginger didn't seem to know she wasn't supposed to be able to see them. "This, my girl, is a mating pair of thestrals. They're only visible to people who have seen death. Not everyone can see them. Jack just manage to get us these two. I think they'll be truly useful to us. There's a chance that Cora's coming and that she's hired a professional killer to try to do away with Angus...."

"Well, she can't have him," Ginger frowned. "He's not hers. He's ours."

"Well, you're right, of course, but what if he comes at night? And what if you and I were dressed in black and took to the skies on these thestrals?"

"We wouldn't be seen, would we?" Ginger's eyes were wide, and she was on the same page with Kate."

"Exactly."

"But my magic isn't all that good," she sighed.

"I have an answer for that. Robert has little round balls of explosives that he calls bubbles. If we had our pockets full of them, we could drop them on this bloke and, at the least, we'd be some handy distractions. That would give the others a chance to fire back at him and perhaps keep Angus safe."

"I'm in!" Ginger nodded. "And besides, I'd get to fly! Of course, I'm in."

"Well, now, that depends on whetehr we can make friends with these two before then."

"Well, do we need carrots or apples or..."

"Meat," Kate corrected. "Thestrals are carnivorous."

"Well, so am I, so we should get on just fine," Ginger said. "I could go get something from the kitchen for them."

"Ask Nicky for some chicken pieces," Kate said. "We'll need to teach them that we'll feed them and we need to ask them to not hunt any of the owls or pets here.

"I don't know anyone who speaks thestral, but I bet we'll find a way," Ginger said. She went to the house to get some chicken for the thestrals.

Inside, Angus had nearly all of his Italian words translated.

"Alright, Michael, why do my words reference Paris?" Angus asked.

"Maybe we'll know when we can put all the words together," Michael smiled, knowing he could not keep Angus in the dark forever. Talking Angus out of trying to take this on by himself was definitely going to be a challenge. For now, Michael could stall because they didn't have Marcus's translation for now. That was only momentary.

"I think it would be great fun," Ginger grinned, coming back with the chicken. She gave some to Kate, and they hand fed the thestrals. "So where do we get the ammunition?"

"I bet there's some in the basement, if Angus hasn't blown them all up," Kate said.

"Why would Angus blow them up?" Ginger asked.

"Because he thought they were a lot of fun," Kate laughed.

"He's such a boy at times," Ginger laughed.

"Every man is a little boy at heart," Kate said. She watched Ginger pick up a curry comb and start to gently brush the thestral with a kind, gentle touch. The mare seemed to be drawn to Ginger because of her kindness and she nuzzled Ginger affectionately. "She likes you," Kate told Ginger. "I think you've made a friend. Thestrals are often feared because of their appearance. They aren't often treated kindly."

"I think she's beautiful," Ginger said, awestruck.

"And she can sense that you're not afraid of her. It matters to her," Kate said, as the thestral stallion nosed Kate for a bit more chicken. She laughed and gave him a bit more.

"Do they have names?" Ginger asked Jack. "Everyone deserves a name. She should be Velvet because she's so soft."

"She is," Kate agreed with Jack. "And I think Velvet would suit her just fine, Ginger. What shall we call this big lad?"

"Oh, I think he should be Phantom," Ginger said, "because he's sleek and quiet, and I think he can slip into or out of anything he likes and no one would ever be the wiser."

"Oh, I like that name a lot," Kate said. They watched Jack go and bring back the bubbles, and Kate showed her how they worked and took her outside to throw a couple bubbles to see what they did. Ginger loved them as much as Angus did.

"You know, Jack," Kate said to Jack as Ginger went to brush the big stallion, "Robert wouldn't release her to do the big heavy chores yet, like mucking the stalls and such, but I think she's good enough with them that I'd like her to come out every day that the weather is good enough and work with them. I think she could bond with them, and that would make them certainly happier, and they'd be more effective when we needed them. Thestrals are supposed to be incredibly clever and intuitive and they can form deep bonds with humans if given the chance. She might just be the right one for the job. What do you think? She'd have to have a great deal of help with the chores for awhile yet, but she's always wanted to be an animal healer. Who knows? Maybe it really is her calling."

Ginger went with Jack and started looking at the other animals.

"I haven't seen the clabbert before. He's quite handsome, isn't he? And I love the light on his head. He seems quite proud of it, as well he should be. Evie and Faith and I came out yesterday to see the animals, but we got as far as the hippogriffs, the unicorns, the bowtruckles and the puffs. And then Evie and Faith were all about the puffs. I mean, the puffs are splendid, but I wanted to meet them all." As she went down the row of creatures, she saw Pip, and she thought he looked quite unhappy. She went to pet him and he nipped her finger. It bled heavily, but when he nipped her, she saw something that took her focus.

"Hey, look," she called Kate and Jack. "Pip's hurt. One of his feet is swollen and red and apparently painful." Kate came to look at it.

"Oh, dear, you're right." Kate frowned. "It's called Bumblefoot, and it's an infection. It starts with a little cut to the foot and then it gets infected. I'll let Robert know, and he and I will come back out and treat him. One of us will have to hold him while the other one puts a healing potion on a dressing and wraps his foot. Then I'll have to have a word with him about leaving the dressing alone."

"I could do it," Ginger said. "I bet I could either hold him or put the dressing on."

"Are you sure you want to try? He nipped your finger pretty good. It's really bleeding."

"I'll put a glove on, and it'll be fine. I'd like to try."

"We can try, if you want. I'll hold him, and I'll let you treat his foot. I'll get you a glove. Jack, after I get her a glove would you help her get the healing potion on a little gauze dressing and then wrap his foot? I would like her to not get nipped again." Kate brought some supplies and helped her to put a glove on her bleeding hand so that she didn't get an infection in her finger and so that she didn't bleed all over Pip. "We'll tend that finger when we get done with Pip," she told her.

"I'm not worried. It doesn't really hurt," Ginger told her.

"Here's the potion," she showed her the antibiotic potion. "Just put it on these small gauze pads and then wrap the whole works in gauze so it holds to his foot."