A Birth day

Angus came back in with Minos tucked safely in his pocket. Marcus picked up the lunch bag with the water bottles, and the boys strapped the babies in the backpacks and then put the packs on and secured them, just as Angus had taught them. 

"I think we're ready," Marcus said. "Let's go."

"Yes," Angus said. "I'm curious about what we're going to find."

"So are we," Sam said. "Who's apparating?"

"I will," Angus said, "so you lot need to grab hold, and we'll go."

When everyone was attached, Angus apparated them to the place that Sam put on the map.

"That direction," Victor pointed to the northwest. "We're only about a block from it now." They walked the distance to the cabin, but by then, Angus was tired. He still had some strength he needed to get back. 

"Can we sit for just a moment?" Angus asked. 

"Sure. The last we were here, there were some chairs or benches or something out front of the cabin," Sam said. They walked up to the cabin and saw that clearly no one had been here in years.

"Not a bad looking cabin, but it really does need a little TLC," Angus said, sitting down on the steps. "Just give me a moment, and then I'll be ready to go again. Wonder who owns this now."

"Hard to say, but I daresay he'd have never turned this cabin over to our mom, no matter what," Victor said. "He didn't trust her with money or assets of any kind. He'd have burnt the cabin to the ground first."

"Then, it probably goes to one of you four," Angus said.

"We don't want it," Sam frowned.

"You should go back to the deed for the family house and some of the assets you bought and read the fine print," Victor said. "Dad was shifty about things like that. My wager is that you bought it when you bought the house and all the other assets that went with it."

"Unless Angus sold it off when he sold the property," Sam said.

"No. I only sold the land that the house was on. I had the house and the basement and the tunnels demolished and then only sold the land that the house had been on. I was careful not to include anything else in case any of the things I brought from the house had something you all wanted," Angus said.

"Then my money says you own this sow mess," Victor said.

"As I said, it could be nice if someone put the money in to restore it," Angus said. 

"Or, I could just set it on fire and get rid of it," Sam said.

"Nah. Maybe there's something in there worth keeping. So, we're heading to those woods over there?" Angus asked, pointing to the back of the property.

"Yep. Be careful in case the protection grid is still there, though," Victor said. Angus got up and walked to the woods, and the kids and Marcus followed. 

"Reveal!" Angus cast a spell to see if the grid was there. It shimmered, but now, it only went about five foot high, and there was a two foot space at the bottom instead of 12 inches. The spell was fading with age. "Not worth much anymore, that's for sure," Angus said. "Stand well back, all of you, just in case." He drew his wand and fired a powerful explosive spell. The entire protection grid shattered like glass, making a big magical explosion of fire and smoke. 

"You all alright?" Angus asked. "Anyone hurt?"

Ruby and Aria slipped on jackets to the babies and then slipped on the baby carriers as Sam and Victor slipped and clipped them in . " were good" both said as they went and held to Angus and Marcus. Once there she looked around Ruby looked at the cabin as they drew close she walked to the slightly open door and pushed it " could be good, nice and quiet out here. " she said and stepped inside but a cobweb touched her and she wiped it away " with a good clean" she added " looks like a good sized living room" she peeked back inside.

Moving back to Angus she walked beside him to where she saw the barrier. Stepping back from Angus she covered Caprice as Aria covered Dimond before Angus broke the barrier stopping them going any further. " nope were all good here" she said glancing over at Aria who nodded she and Dimond we're okay after the blast.

"Good. Let's go," Angus said. "Where's the Fisherman's Face, Boys?" 

"That way," Victor pointed. "You see where that cairn is over there?"

"Yes," Angus said. 

"That marks where the trail used to be. Stay on the right of the cairn and stick to the trail," Victor said. Angus and Marcus walked over to the cairn but the trail had long since disappeared, swallowed up by forest overgrowth. There wasn't even the sign of a trail now.

"Damn," Sam sighed. "Wait, what was that rhyme we made?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that," Victor said. "It was the same as tying a knot, remember?"

"Oh. Dang it. What was the knot?"

"Square knot? How did that go?" Victor sighed, not able to remember.

"Right over left and left over right," Angus replied.

"That's it!" Sam said. "That's how you find your way without the trail."

"That's no help at all," Angus said.

"Yes it is," Victor said. "We put a few cairn back in the woods, hidden behind some boulders. Providing they're still there, go straight north, and when you find the first cairn, go right. Stay straight until you find the next cairn, and then go left. That should take us right to it."

"Well, I"m game," Angus said. "You lot coming for a hike in the woods? After all, what's the worst taht could happen?"

"Spiders, snakes, wasps..." Sam teased.

"I'm sure we'll survive that," Angus laughed. "Let's go."

Aria chuckled and smiled walking over to where Angus and the boys stood " oh come on" she said smiling as she moved to stand by the cairn. " think of the adventure" she added as Ruby walked over and chuckled along with Aria. Even the babies clapped their hands and giggled.

Aria pushed aside some shrubbery and saw the remnants of a trail she started to following but paused as Sam explained how to get to the stone "So Right over left and left over right." she asked Sam " right then left" she clarified as she waited for Angus and Marcus.

Ruby reached into her pocket and took out a compass looking down at it she nodded at Sams directions. " okay lets go" she said and moved to stand with Aria again. But she glanced at Marcus " you okay to keep going?" she asked

"I'm fine," Marcus said. "I'm more concerned for Angus. It's only been few days since his surgery. His energy is going to be far more limited than mine. I'm fine. And in case you're wondering, yes, my memory is still pretty swiss cheesed, but today I do remember some of my relationship with you, but I'm sure there's probably more to it than what little I remember."

"No gooey stuff out here, Guys," Sam scowled at Marcus and Aria. "Not unless you're going to go find a room somewhere." Angus tried hard not to laugh. And then he spotted a boulder. He looked behind it, and he didn't find any cairn or any smaller rocks that would show a cairn had ever been behind the boulder. "This boulder is a dud. Keep walking, Gang."

Minos fluttered out of Angus's pocket, and he began to gesture at Angus.

"Minos thinks we should be gathering the herbs and such to put into the bowl so we have it when we get there." He listened to Minos awhile longer, and then he looked at them. "Minos thinks that since there are eight ingredients, if we each looked for one ingredient, we could each gather several of one ingredient. So what do we need, Minos?"

"Someone needs to look some yarrow plants, someone needs to find some wild carrots, another needs to find some ransoms..."

"Ransoms? Like money?" Sam asked.

"No. Its a wildflower. Smells like garlic," Angus said.

"Oh. Of course it does," Sam sighed.

"Someone else needs to gather us some sticks. Someone else needs to gather some dry leaves, someone needs to gather some buckthorn, someone else needs to gather some guelder rose blossoms, and someone needs to find some rowan bark. Now, clear as mud?"

"I'll look for the rowan bark," Marcus said.

"I'll look for the wild carrot," Anise said. "It can be easily mistaken for hemlock, but I know the difference."

"Good. Aria and Ru, what do you two want to look for?" Angus asked.

Ruby glanced back at Marcus and Aria and chuckled as Sam spoke making Aria chuckled too " hey they probably be able to find the room quicker than you " she said and chuckled as Aria turned to Marcus.

"I'm glad you remember and yes I'm worried about Angus too we might need to port him home after all this is over" she said to him as she gently touched his hand with her own. Hearing Angus relay Minos message she smiled I'll find the guelder rose blossoms " she said as she stared to look around the area. It wasn't long before she spotted the large round blooms not far from them and walked over taking a small bag from her pocket she started to place several blooms into it with Dimond helping and having fun dropping the small blooms into the bag Aria held. Now with the blooms in hand she walked back to Angus " this enough?" she asked holding up the half filled bag.

Ruby listened to Angus and smiled " I'll find the Ransoms" she said as she began looking at the ground for the small white flowers. Soon she found some and small pieces of rowan bark. snipping the stalks she gathered the heads and placed them into her large front pocket of the hoodie she wore. Caprice was about to eat one when she took it from her and handed her the toy key ring to chew on instead. " found the Ransoms" she said walking over and putting hers with Arias herbs.

"I'll get the buckthorn," Ginger said. "Victor, there's a bunch of yarrow right there, and Sam, there is a bunch of dead branches. You could get your twigs."

"Thanks," the boys said, gathering the sticks and the yarrow. Angus gathered a bunch of dry leaves. 

"I think Minos is..."

"Look. There it is. The first cairn," Victor pointed. Sam looked behind the boulder Victor was at. 

"Yep. That's it. Now we go right. When we find the other cairn we go left until we come to the Fisherman's face," Sam said.  It was a bit of a hike, but then Sam found the other cairn. 

"Good. Now we go left," Victor said. "The last time we were here, the Fisherman's Face was in a clearing..."

Minos began chattering again at Angus.

"Minos believes it will still be in a clearing. He thinks the rock is protected by enchantments," Angus said. "Let's keep going."

Ruby walked with Angus while Aria stayed close with Marcus to Angus just in case they were needed. When Aria heard Victor call that he'd found the next cairn she walked over to it and chuckled as she moved some vines from it. " so not far then" she asked as they continued in a different direction as Angus spoke about the stone still being in a clearing as it would be enchanted.

"that's good easier to find" Ruby said as they walked in the direction Victor had indicated. Caprice grabbed leaves and flung them loving being able to grab everything as they walked and shouted "Papa" as loud as she wanted.

"God, I hope there aren't any guards left here," Angus sighed. "So much for stealth."  They came to a clearing, and right in the center of it was a huge, ugly rock. With a little imagination, Angus could see how someone might think it was the head of a grizzled old fisherman, with a pipe in his teeth. Angus walked over to the rock and looked in the bowl of the pipe. There was all manner of forest rubbish in here, sticks, stones, leaves. Angus cleared it all away, and Minos looked at the rune in the bottom of the bowl and nodded at Angus. 

Minos pointed to the others, one by one, for them to put their ingredients into the bowl, and then Minos summoned his powers and began to weave an old Fae spell. Angus began to understand. There were newer Fae spells for opening, but Minos was casting an old ancient spell for it. This was rather specialized work, even by Fae standards. And then Minos fired a fire spell into the bowl and the ingredients went up in a ball of flame. And as the bowl burned, Angus heard what sounded like moving rock. 

"That way," Marcus pointed off to the northwest. "Careful." He looked at Aria and Ruby. "You can come but let Angus and I go a bit ahead of you, just because we don't know what we're opening. If it's bad, we need you to get all the kids out of here." 

Angus and Marcus went ahead of the others, and they came to what looked like a very low lying cave. They would have to either stoop down low or go in on their hands and knees. They lit their wands and went in together.  The cave opened up into a much larger cave, and there was a horrendous stench inside. It smelled like death--a lot of death. Everywhere they looked, they saw a body.

"This is where he brought the men he offed for Benjamin," Marcus said quietly. "He killed them here and just left them where they died."

"Clearly," Angus said softly. He called out to the others. "Don't come in here. It's not for your eyes. We're going to need aurors here because of the crimes that have been committed in here. Give us a minute." Angus walked towards the back of the cave and saw another room off to the left. Going into the second room, it took his breath away. "Good lord," Angus said. "This was what he was hiding."  Marcus came back and entered the room. It fairly glowed on its own with piles and piles of galleons. This was what Suzanne and Tom were both working against each other to try to find first. Piles and piles of Reginald's blood money.

Angus and Marcus left the cave.

"I don't think any of you should go in there. There are...." Angus was at a loss for words.

"Bodies," Marcus said. "Several, and in different stages of decomposition. But, clear at the back, we found a room about the size of a Gringott's vault, and its loaded with gold. This is what Tom and Suzanne are trying to outwit us and each other to try to get to before the other one does."

"And, if we're right," Victor said. "It all belongs to Angus and Ruby now."

Aria and Ruby followed Marcus and Angus towards the spot with the rock Aria scrunched her face and shook her head " doesn't look like a fisherman to me" she said to Ruby who chuckled as they together they watched Minos cast his spell at the bowl with the herbs in it they had placed there before . Hearing the sound of stone moving Ruby and Aria looked around till they saw the opening of a cave.

Ruby walked over with Aria following both stood by the entrance Ruby shivered at something from inside and stepped back. She watched as Angus and Marcus walked in. After a moment they saw both Marcus and Angus walk back out looking very disturbed. Both looked at each other but as Angus spoke Ruby shook her head and stepped back " I'll take your word for it" she said as Aria looked at Marcus.

"for the babies sake I'll stay here" she had herd Angus and nodded " could call Lucian he'd deal with it discreetly." she said as she looked to Angus . Ruby heard Victor and shook her head at his words.

" it will go to help the kids if I know Angus , blood galleons are no good, unless put to a good clean use and there is no better use than giving lost and abused children a safe environment." she said " once its deemed to whom it belongs, right?" she said looking at Angus.