"…will we do?"

  "…seem like good people, trustworthy and courageous. While you have slept, they have watched over you, cared for you. Their affection for you is clear, and I believe they will want you to remain with them."

  Kira was roused from sleep by Oswald's voice, opening her eyes to see Lara sat on the sofa, wrapped in her blanket and holding the small dragon in her lap as they spoke. Early morning light filtered around the curtains, but there was no sign of the feline protectors that typically sat guard at the window. Kira's instruction from the night before was still being followed. The girls looked at each other for a moment, before Kira disentangled herself from the sleeping bag and sat next to her friend, hesitantly taking a hand in her own.

  "How are… are you… how was your sleep, La?" Kira stumbled, each question feeling wrong even as she put it into words.

  Lara shrugged. "Better, I think. No dreams thankfully." She took a breath before continuing. "How did I get here… wherever it is?"

  "We're over the road from my house, at my Godparents' place. We've been staying here quite a bit to keep safe and when Mum and Dad have had things to do. Dad got badly hurt on the first night and Aunty Carry has turned into a magical healer, so she fixed him up, and since then he has been making these badges which do all kinds of magic stuff, like make light, water and fire. We've started a big vegetable patch in the back garden here and we're going to do that in our garden as well, so we'll have enough to eat. Oh! And we're going to find Lizzy and Sarah and help their families move in here as well." Relieved at seeing Lara awake, Kira was excitedly recounting everything, oblivious to her friend's dazed expression.

  She came to a halt and Lara managed to get a word in. "What?" She asked breathlessly. "Magic badges, and the girls moving in here? Can you slow down a bit 'Ra?"

  Kira blushed apologetically. "Sorry, I'm just so happy to see you better. When Dad brought you back, and then when you were crying yesterday, I… I didn't know how to help. I want to help La' – you can… both of you…" She reached out with her free hand to stroke Oswald's raised head. "…can stay with us – with Mum, Dad and me."

  Lara's head dipped. "I don't think I'll ever be better, not after… after…" Her words dissolved into tears, and she leaned into Kira, who folded her in a hug.

  They stayed like that for some time, Kira gently rocking her friend and holding her tight as she quietly let out her grief. Oswald snuggled in close to Lara's front, his head laid on her shoulder, wordlessly giving what small, plushy comfort he could. Eventually, the sobs subsided and Lara wiped her eyes, patting Kira's hand gratefully. Collecting herself, she asked again in a business-like way. "So, can you tell me everything, a bit slower this time?"

  Kira took her time to go through everything that had happened, speaking quietly to avoid waking Carry and Al. Her parents had chosen to go back over the road to their own bed, getting things ready for setting up the vegetable patch the group would be working on today. She went through the events of the first night after 'the weirdness', discovering their connections with various objects and how these had helped their survival. She gave more-or-less accurate accounts of the trips to the garden centre and the hardware shop, complete with a second-hand version of the battle against the spiders.

  "…and then Dad took his bike over to your place, to find out if you were ok. He found you and Oswald – well, Oswald found him actually – and then you both got away from the big snake and came back here." She paused, taking a quick drink to wet her mouth after the extended story-telling. "Do you.. do you want to talk about… what happened?"

  Lara paused, before nodding jerkily. "It started off like a big adventure. We were camping in the living room with candles, talking about things to do, games we could play until the power came back on. Mum…" Her voice caught, and she took a moment to steady herself. "Mum was telling us a story. Dad was outside getting some wood for the fireplace, and we heard him yell out, and then he made a horrible noise. Mum grabbed us and we ran upstairs, she pushed me up into the loft and was lifting David, but something grabbed Mum and she was just gone. David reached up to me… he reached up… I tried to reach him… I really did! I…"

  Kira folded her friend in her arms as the memories overwhelmed Lara and tears flowed freely once more. "There's nothing you could have done La, really. Dad told us about what he saw there, and he said he was really lucky to get away with you. He told us he was terrified the whole time, just trying to get you out of there."

  As Lara cried, Kira noticed Alan at the door of the living room, looking in with consternation written across his face. He gave a questioning thumbs up, wiggling it around to eloquently check if things were ok. Kira nodded, which he returned, backed out and pulled the door closed behind him.

  Stroking her friend's hair, Kira remained quiet until the sobs slowed, and Lara's breathing returned to normal. A thought hit of how to distract her friend. "Hey La, do you want to see something adorable and incredible?!"

  Sniffling, Lara looked up, interest piqued and – for the moment – relegating sadness into the background. "Okay, what is it?"

  Kira looked her friend in the eyes. "Do you trust me? Like, completely?"

  Lara looked slightly hurt. "You know I do. I didn't tell anyone about the thing with Mrs Creevey's umbrella, did I?"

  Kira looked contrite. "Yes, of course, sorry." She brightened again. "Do you remember the kittens I told you about? I showed you a picture a few weeks ago."

  Lara nodded eagerly, and her face took on the dictionary definition of 'adorable kitten reaction'. For the first time she seemed positive, awaiting Kira's words.

  "Well, whatever happened made them grow, like really big. Think lions and tigers. They've been keeping us safe, keeping watch over us every night. And guess what? I'm learning to talk to them!" At her friend's sceptical look, Kira continued. "Really! Now, stay calm and I'll ask one of them to come here. It'll be okay, I promise."

  Lara nodded uncertainly, taking hold of Oswald. Kira stayed close to her friend, turned back toward the room and hissed. "Nala, kishh."

  Lara's eyes widened as the large cat slowly emerged from the shadows behind the sofa, loping gracefully around to stand beside Kira, nuzzling her side until the girl started the requisite ear scratches. Lara's breathing sped up and she unconsciously scooted backward on the sofa, before settling slightly as the large feline lay down by her friend's side. Slowly she moved forward, one hand reaching hesitantly to stroke along the cat's back, prompting a loud purr to rumble around the room. At this, Dragon also emerged from the shadows, muzzle sniffing at Lara before gently nudging her for some personal attention, which the besotted girl was happy to provide.

  Kira had a satisfied grin as her friend took on more of her usual easy-going self, losing her hesitancy as she rubbed both hands behind Dragon's ears, almost instinctively finding the spots which elicited a happy reaction from the feline. All the times her dad had prescribed distraction as a cure of some common ills - like the stubbed toe or bruised finger – now made much more sense as she saw a traumatised young girl displaying more of her normal vibrancy, at least for now shedding the awful grief and even laughing at the joy of something so simple as stroking silky-soft fur.

  Lara looked up at her, her eyes sparkling once again and a wide smile on her face. "They're so cute!" She cried, forgetting the early hour. "What did you say to them?"

  Kira knelt down next to her, lavishing attention on Nala and Dragon as they lay on their sides, purring contentedly. "I only know a few words, but I'm learning more through my book. What I said before – 'kishh'…" The cat's ears perked up at this. "…means 'stay with me' – at least I think that is what 'attend' means. I know how to tell… how to ask them to watch out, that there is danger, but what you want to say is…" She leant over and whispered something in her friend's ear.

  Lara cleared her throat and with a nervous expression on her face, hissed "wah" to the reclining cats. The change was immediate, with the cats' true natures revealed as they jumped into play, nudging both girls to the ground and tickling their necks with tongue and whiskers. Paws gently rolled the girls side to side, tails lashed and tickled noses, helpless with giggles as the merciless assault continued. With the watchful and protective presence the cats usually maintained, it was easy to forget that – while they were larger – they were still very young, and their massive growth did not obviate their young age and playful personalities.

  The relentless tickling continued, the girls almost breathless with laughter before the playmates noticed Carry leaning on the doorframe, a sad smile on her usually happy face. The girls disentangled themselves and sat up, rubbing ears and stroking backs as they got their breath back.

  "Sorry Aunty Carry, did we wake you up?" Kira asked.

  "No matter love, it was worth it to see such joyful play." Carry replied, blinking away misty eyes.

  "Is something the matter?" Kira asked, concerned that they had made too much noise, or done something wrong.

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  "Nothing for either of you to worry about, things that can't be changed and are in the past." Carry responded, forcing thoughts of her miscarriage from her mind. Seeing the two girls romp about with the cats had briefly brought the loss back to her, the scene which she had hoped to experience as a mother, not a minder. In an unusual display of tact, Kira – who had gone through the sorrowful experience with her Aunt at the time – refrained from further inquiry and turned back to her friend.

  "La, this is Aunty Carry, the best God-Mum ever. Aunty Carry, this is La… Lara, my best friend in all the world and the undefeated Mario Cart champion of Twyford."

  "It's a pleasure to meet you Lara, good to see you up and about. How are you feeling?" Carry asked, keeping her tone light and not wanting to appear too concerned and maybe drag the girl back into any depression.

  "I'm okay thank you… Aunty Carry." Lara replied, blushing slightly as she realised the moniker she had used. Carry appeared not to mind, smiling indulgently at them both. "Your cats are wonderful!"

  "That they are love, they have been a great comfort to us, and I'm sure they will be to you as well. I'm glad you got to meet them. These are Nala with the white stripe on her tail, and Dragon. Around the house you will also find Oli - who has a white spotted chin - and the joker with the white forepaws is Lion."

  Lara's eyes grew wide once more. "There are two more?! Where do they sleep, what do they eat?" She thought back. "And how did they fit behind the sofa?"

  Kira jumped in as Carry opened her mouth to respond. "They spend a lot of time watching out the windows, looking for danger and keeping us safe. I think they hunt for some food outside at night, as we sometimes find them cleaning themselves of bl… mess, in the mornings. As for their hiding, they're really magical – they're called Shadow Prowlers – they can walk in and out of shadows, so they're not actually behind the sofa at all, there's nowhere near enough room."

  Carry nodded in agreement. "We ran out of pet food a few days ago – even with a decent supply they are eating so much more than usual, we were never going to keep up. I'm thankful they are able to feed themselves, but I do worry that they may find something too dangerous. I'd like to find another way to keep them fed, but that will wait until we've sorted out more important things."

  "What more important things? Please?" Kira asked, keen to be kept up to speed and not protected from everything. Feeling safe was nice but it sometimes got very boring, and despite the fascinating things she had managed to find in her book, she did miss her video games and favourite YouTubers.

  "We need to get the veggie patch setup in your garden, your dad needs to make a load of patches for whichever families we can convince to move into the road, and we need to… well, other things that you don't need to worry about right now." Carry caught herself before mentioning the plans against the rats' nest, not wanting to put a dangerous activity in Lara's thoughts right now. "So you two need to get ready for the day, come and have some breakfast. Lara, have you seen one of Matt's patches working yet?"

  "No, can you show me please? I've heard quite a lot and they sound cool!" The young girl bounded to her feet, tugged Kira up and they followed Carry through to the kitchen.

  Warmed up by their play with the cats, the girls were only just starting to notice the morning chill. Lara eagerly 'cast her first spell' as she called it, touching the heat patch in the centre of the table and basking in the waves of gentle heat which rolled out as they enjoyed breakfast. Carry showed her the cold patch in the fridge, inert from the night before but now recharged and ready to be reactivated. Lastly, they closed the curtain and let Kira activate the light patch, recounting the story of Matt's glowing boxer shorts accompanied by more giggles. Alan joined them after a while and entertained them with a rendition of the noises he had made when forgetting that the shower had no hot water.

  Squirming slightly, Lara looked around and asked. "Where is the toilet please? I really need to go."

  Kira stood. "I'll show you, it's at the top of the stairs. The flush doesn't work now there isn't any water in the pipes, but we keep a bucket up there we can flush with." The two girls cleared away their breakfast bowls and headed upstairs. Voices fading as the adults could hear Lara ask, "He has a patch that does what?!"

  Alan leaned over and kissed his wife on the lips tenderly. "She seems suspiciously alright this morning?" He posited quietly.

  Carry pulled his head back for a more complete morning greeting, before replying. "Yes, Kira has done really well, comforting her when she cries, and distracting her with the cats this morning. I was concerned she might be more closed up, but she seems to be dealing with it well, not holding it all inside and letting the trauma fester and grow. We'll keep an eye on her, but she's made a good start to recovery. Keeping her busy will be very important, but that should be easy and the extra pair of hands will help."

  Alan grunted his agreement and dug into his sandwich, choking on a bite as there was a loud fluttering of wings outside. A great shadow crossed the window and they were flabbergasted at what landed in the back garden. A giant grey bird, smooth feathers covering a body roughly the same shape and size as a large beach ball, was strutting around the garden, beady eyes darting everywhere as the head turned in sudden jerks. As they watched, wings flapped once and in an ungainly, bouncing leap, the bird landed squarely in the vegetable patch and started pecking into the ground.

  Alan scrabbled for the back door keys, outraged by the theft of their future food supply. "That's our lunch, you bloody flying bouncy ball!" He yelled as he finally got the door yanked open and ran out into the garden, staff in hand. The intruder spun clumsily to face him, head cocking side to side, tiny black eyes blinking. Up close, Alan could make out a stubby but sharp beak, and legs covered in wrinkled pink skin, ending in jagged black claws. He held the staff across his body, ready to block if the thing lunged at him. A tense stand-off, as the bird's eyes alternated between the human and the potential lunch behind it. Alan was in no rush to jump into the range of those claws, and cursed under his breath for not wearing the clothes with the armour patches on.

  "Is that a pigeon?" Carry's voice came though the open door, breaking the silence. This triggered a response from the bird, its beak gaping wide and a loud cooing blasted out, ripples of sound crashing over Alan and knocking him backward in a dizzy stumble. In a daze, he saw the wings spread and the bird crouch back preparing to jump at him, when a black form burst out of the shadowy undergrowth at the back of the garden, descending on the crouched bird and driving it into the grass. The dizzying sound was cut off abruptly, as a sickening crunch of breaking bone sounded. The bird spasmed, wings going to full extension, before falling limply to the floor.

  Alan watched as the world swam in front of his eyes, vision gradually clearing until he could make out the overgrown pigeon, neck bent at an unnatural angle and wings arcing out to each side of the still rounded body. Behind it, Lion was sitting quietly, licking one paw and cleaning some feather fluff from his glossy black fur. Shaking his head to clear the last of the cobwebs, Alan approached cautiously, reaching out with his stick to prod the bird. It certainly looked dead, but he was not going to take any chances. There was no reaction, and the body felt curiously solid, not the lightness of hollow bones and feathers common to most birds.

  The corpse jerked once, then again and Alan jumped back, raising his stick. Moving to the side, he noticed that Lion was biting into one of the wrinkled legs, ripping away chunks of pink flesh. Fascinated despite the gruesome spectacle, Alan thought you can eat pigeon, can't you? Turning back to the kitchen, he hurried to the door, where Carry waited. He moved inside and called up the stairs. "Kira! I need you and your book right now!"

  The two girls came piling downstairs, Kira running into the living room to collect the large encyclopaedia, while Lara moved into the kitchen and stared, wide-eyed at the pair of cats worrying at the legs of the dead bird. Moments later Kira entered and put the book down heavily on the kitchen table. She looked at Alan and asked, "What do you need?"

  Alan pointed out the window, and Kira got her first good look at the dead bird and the snacking cats. She gulped and turned her eyes away as Alan spoke. "Can you look in there and find out what that is, is it edible and – if it is - how do you butcher it?"

  Her face went white at the brutal pragmatism of his questions, but nodded and took a deep breath, fixing the picture of the beast in her mind. Opening the book seemingly to a random page, she focused and started reading.

  Alan turned to Lara, laid a hand on her shoulder and spoke in a serious voice. "Lara, we need you to promise something please. You don't tell anyone about Kira's book, okay? Not your friends, not strangers, not anyone who might live next door. This is very important, can we trust you on this?" Not understanding why, but clearly understanding the tone of Alan's voice, Lara nodded and turned back to her friend.

  "Good girl." He turned back to Kira. "What have you got for us youngster?"

  Kira finished going through the page, took a breath and started reading out loud. "Boomer Pigeons are a common game bird, with a voracious appetite for young food plants. Clumsy and ungainly on the ground, in the air they display surprising agility, due to their heavily swollen musculature. They have evolved an effective defence mechanism in a sonic wave, focused from their regular cooing cry, which causes dizziness, nausea and cranial haemorrhaging in some cases. Breast meat taken from these creatures is prized both for it's great size and rich flavour."

  She finished and looked over to Alan. "Are you going to…?" She left it hanging, but he understood.

  "We need food, at least until our garden grows to the first harvest. It may be grim, but if things are edible, we can't turn down fresh food. Now I need you to find me some instructions on how to… get what we need from these things, okay?"

  Both the girls looked sick, and Carry looked at them sympathetically. It was one thing to know that the meat on the dinner table didn't come into existence shrink-wrapped for your convenience, and another entirely to have the butchering process happen in front of you. Alan didn't look particularly thrilled at what needed doing, but once again that pragmatic mindset came into play, swallowing his revulsion at the task due to it's necessity. Despite their successful looting of the surrounding properties, there was not enough food to sustain them until their garden started producing, especially with another mouth to feed.

  Kira still looked pale, but nodded resolutely and dove back into her book, Lara sitting quietly at her side, fingers twining through Nala's fur. Over the next hour, Kira and Alan worked awkwardly through a series of shouted instructions, as she refused to watch the grisly task. Alan went about his bloody business, swearing occasionally at the smell and feel of the brutal necessity.

  Some time later, Alan stepped back from the bundle of feathers and blood, feeling pretty sick but proud of the very amateur butcher's job he had performed. Large slabs of pink meat were heaped in the cool box, after having been rinsed in a bucket. Washing the worst of the mess from his hands and arms, he carried the cool box inside where Carry hurriedly wrapped and transferred the large pieces into the fridge, ready for barbequing later on. The girls had taken one look at Alan's activities and shut themselves in the living room, from whence there came spirited and meaningful discussions about the relative cuteness of their feline friends.

  A knock on the door was followed by a cheerful greeting, as Matt and Arlee made their way in. On entering the kitchen and seeing the state of Alan, bits of feather and smeared blood and other internal fluids staining his clothes, their jaws dropped.

  "What happened Al? Are the girls alright? Was it another rat?"

  Alan was still struggling to keep his stomach under control but managed a triumphant grin. "All good guys, are you leg or breast lovers?"

  He decided that the look on their faces was worth everything that had happened that morning!