A Birth day

"Good. Rest a bit," Robert told Jess. "Yu, upstairs, in the kitchen cabinet, there's a jar of tea there labeled Seers' Tea. Its my own blend, but since I have a whole bloody family of seers, I had to come up with something to help them recharge depleted energies. And since some of us use very similar energies to heal, the seers' tea will help replace certain healers' energies too. Would you please go make a mug of it for Jess, please, and make it strong. It'll help her feel better quicker, and if you happen to find Nigel up there, send him down? He might not be here yet. I know he said it could be awhile before he could come."

Robert continued to work to bind up some of the boy's wounds, casting healing spells and then starting to bandage the wounds heavily. He was also using a Vunera Sanentur spell to help to close what wounds he could and to start to replace some of the lost blood. Robert saw some of the color start to return ever so slowly to the lad's skin. That was indeed a good sign. He glanced over at Khaat and saw the blood starting to soak through her blouse already. He was not going to allow himself to be rattled. He had to be calm.

Angus and Anise had finished their sundaes of butterbeer ice cream with hot fudge sauce, and they had apparated home. They found the boys, Ginger, the baby, and Simone there. Everyone was outside, and everyone was weeding the garden and the tea garden, and the baby was in a playpen under a shady tree, with some toys.

"We were getting worried," Sam said. "Did you get the werewolf?"

"We did," Angus said. "He's just a little kid."

"You're kidding," Sam frowned. "Who would do such a horrible thing?'

"Well, there's a story to that. Jessie and Edward back yet?"

"Not that we've seen," Sam said. "Where have you two been?"

"We made a very brief stop in London on our way back," Angus replied.

"You can certainly take him either place, I think," Edward said. "Take him to your place if you want. It's unlikely that Sergio or Ana would go there. I know the boys have a box of their old toys in the basement. I'll ask one of them to go find a few toys and bring them over so Cris has something to do. They'll work in a pinch. And there are things you could probably do with him without words. Crayons and coloring books or paper. Cars and trucks, animals. Anything where you can connect with him when he wakes up where words aren't required.

"You could also work with him on a picture board. Get some pictures from magazines showing basic needs things, like eating, drinking, bed, bathroom, toys, that sort of thing and paste them on a piece of poster board. We can teach him, for now, that if he needs something and there isn't anyone around who speaks Romanian, he can get what he needs by pointing it out on the word board. And, maybe, if he can draw even a little, he might be able to add some of his own needs by drawing them on the board. It's worth a try. He might keep sleeping for awhile yet, though. There's no telling when he slept last. If he has just a quiet place to sleep, that might be all he wants for the next few hours."

"Certainly," Edward said, going along.

"He's a brand new werewolf at just seven," Edward said to Jack, "and I think he's most likely very new at being seven. He looks more like six than seven. He's really tiny for seven. Long story short, he attacked his own family when he transformed the first time, and his parents told the authorities about him. They've been hunting him to get rid of him for at least a couple months, and he's been on the run since then. Near as we can figure, the evidence suggests he's also the one who attacked Sergio's boy, but I doubt that this little buggar even remembers that. New werewolves don't generally remember that, especially the little ones. And so we have a tiny little boy who has a werewolf sized problem. I lied. I told the authorities we found the boy's corpse. So, now he's a tiny little werewolf who's list everyone and everything he's ever known. But, as I figure it, he deserves a chance. So, he's had a bath and a meal, some clothes, and now he's finally getting a little safety and a little sleep. I told Jessie I'd have Sam and Victor bring over some of their old toys. I feel for this little guy. He's got one hell of a tough road ahead of him, and a huge adjustment to make."

Nigel arrived finally, and he made his way downstairs. He saw Robert with blood all over his clothes and on his hands clear up to his elbows. On the bed, there was the boy that Robert had told him about, and beside the bed, Khaat was sitting calmly, clutching the boy's hand, as blood was saturating her blouse. And Robert was working. Silently, steadily working.

"How's the bleeding now?" Nigel asked.

"I've got slowed, but I transferred the heavy bleeders to Khaat." He looked up at Nigel, who didn't have any expression at all. "Save my daughter, Nigel," Robert said.

"Bring her, would you?" Nigel asked, pulling back a dividing curtain so he could use the other bed for Khaat and then going to turn on the light. "I'll need to see what I'm dealing with."

"I can make it," she told Nigel. She stood up, and the blood poured from her midsection.

"Yeah, and that's why I didn't want you to do that. You're leaking, my dear," Nigel said.

"Clothes would be great," Edward said. "I'll send a note through to Clive and see if he can send us some pajamas and knickers and socks and such."

Angus had remembered, though, and Sam had packed a box of toys. He brought it over and knocked on the door lightly. Edward opened the door, and Sam brought the box in, as the boy stirred on the sofa and woke. Sam was just setting the box down on the floor when Cris's eyes landed on the box of toys. Sam looked up and saw what the little boy was looking at. Sam picked up the box and took it over and put it in the floor in front of Cris. Cris looked at Sam, and Sam gestured towards the box. Cris reached down and picked up a green, stuffed dinosaur, holding it close.

"Dino," Sam said. The boy looked at Sam like he thought Sam was an utter imbicle.



"T Rex," Cris said in his little tiny child voice. Sam laughed out loud, and he looked at Cris who had just the slightest glimmer of a smile.

"Well, you know one thing. He's into dinosaurs," Sam said. Sam picked out a plastic container with small plastic dinosaurs--a dinosaur playset. Sam opened the jar, and he took out some different kinds of dinosaurs, and Cris got every one of them right. "Okay You know he's crazy for dinosaurs. No six or seven year old should know them that well unless they're nuts about dinosaurs."

"Nah," Sam said. "That's not English, Jessie. Those are the Latin names for their different species. That's what everybody calls them world round."

Nigel unbuttoned Khaat's shirt and started to check her midsection. "You're a right foul mess, you know that? And what's that green light?"

"Oh. Her necklace. It's all honked off because of the werewolf claw wounds," Robert said.

"Wait. What? It's irked? What is it, enchanted or something?"

"Yeah," Robert said. "My brother somehow got Nicolas Flamel to make it for her. One of the last known pieces Flamel did. It's enchanted to protect her from werewolves in certain ways. It seems to have some quirky little attitudes."

"Can you shut it off? It's annoying." Nigel said. Robert accio'd a plaster and handed it to him.

"Can't shut it off, so you might be able to hide it a little if you wrap a plaster around it for now," Robert said.

"You've got some dittany potion made up? Good. Could I have it please?" Nigel asked, getting some dressings ready. "Let's see how they respond in a body with a healthier immune system. If that doesn't work, I've got a bit of the silve and dittany in a more concentrated paste. We could try that and see if that has any better result."

"How's the bleeding?"

"Well, she does one thing very well. She knows how to bleed profusely," Nigel said.

"That is not a skill I want her to know," Robert frowned.

"Too late," Nigel said, casting him an amused look.