(A/N: I apologize for how long the wait on this chapter has been. My desire to write has been pretty much non-existent for the past few years. I begun to focus more on DA lately. But a fan of this story really wants me to continue it. Oh, and before I forget, I should have said this a LOT sooner, but the idea for Sheela came to me from someone who called themselves Anonymous But Interested. I mean, the idea for a female hunting dog did, anyway. So, without further ado, here is the next chapter to this story.)
As the sun rose, Sheela tented her fingers as she stared at Minerva Mink's house, smiling sneakily. Today would be the day. The day where she would finally capture Minerva and bring her pelt to her master. She had it all planned out. And she was determined to let this be the day she would finally succeed.
"My plan is perfect." Sheela said to herself. "First, I will discredit my idiot brother in the mink's eyes enough that she will kick him out like my master did. Then, without my brother there, there will be no one to notice that she is gone, meaning I can just walk right in and take her." Her smile grew and her eyes narrowed as she thought about how her plan would succeed. "Be prepared, you two." She said to the house. "For your day of reckoning is upon you." With that, Sheela set off for the house, ready to put her plan in motion.
Newt woke up staring into a beautiful pair of eyes. For a while, he thought he had died and gone to Heaven, and was being greeted by a beautiful angel. However, when the eyes moved back, Newt saw Minerva smiling sweetly at him as he awoke.
"Close enough." He thought to himself.
"Morning, Newt." Minerva said. She then brought out what Newt could only deduce was today's list of chores.
"Today's list?" Newt asked.
"However did you guess?" Minerva asked. "I'll have scrambled eggs, toast, & orange juice." Newt sat up & saluted loyally.
"As you wish, Minerva." He said. He got up off the couch & made for the kitchen. However, Sheela was watching him through the window with a sinister look on her face.
"Look at that dog." She said. "Look at that carefree expression on his face. He doesn't realize that once I intervene, he will no longer be living there, and his mink master will belong to MY master." She pulled out a vial of yellow liquid & looked at it. "With this little vial, dear brother." She said. "Your fate is sealed." She waited as Newt prepared Minerva's breakfast. He cracked the eggs on the frying pan & began scrambling them. After a while, some toast popped. Newt went to get it, giving Sheela her chance. She opened up the window above the stove & poured the yellow liquid onto the eggs. She then closed the window & hid under it, snickering. "Just you wait, mink." She said. "Once you taste my brother's eggs, you'll wish he never came into your life, let alone your house."
Later, Newt had finished the scrambled eggs he had prepared for Minerva. They smelled so good, he actually split it between himself & Minerva. Newt had prepared for himself some of the scrambled eggs he made, and some orange juice. Sheela watched with a twisted glee, just waiting for Minerva to wretch. "That's it, mink." She said. "Eat the eggs. Eat them all up." Minerva looked at Newt & swallowed her mouthful of eggs.
"Wow, Newt." Minerva said. "These eggs are even better than the last eggs that you served."
"I know." Newt said after swallowing the eggs he had. "It's unbelievable. My eggs have NEVER tasted this good before. It's almost as if somebody had spiked it."
Minerva looked at him & raised an eyebrow before returning to eating her eggs. However, after her most recent swallow, Sheela's elixir had finally kicked in & began to effect them both. They both put their forks down, bent over, & clutched their stomachs. Minerva with one hand, & Newt with both. After a while, Minerva felt the eggs come up & started to run for the bathroom, followed closely by Newt. They both burst open the door & ran in. Minerva ran over to her sink & wretched in it, while Newt got sick into the toilet. Sheela had snuck over to the window to watch the fruits of her labour, waiting for Minerva to kick Newt out of her house so she could be more vulnerable to her.
"Heh heh heh heh." She laughed sinisterly under her breath. "I knew it'd work." She said, her view turning to the empty vial in her hand. "Epecac. The perfect thing to make even the strongest of stomachs wretch horribly. With this little concoction, Newt is out of the house." She watched as Minerva had finished throwing up, & looked over at Newt, with drool still dribbling from her mouth. She wiped it off & looked at him.
"Newt." She said. "What happened here?" Newt looked at her, his eyes showing he had felt the draining effect from the vomiting that he had done.
"I… I don't know, Minerva." Newt said before gulping down some vomit. "For some reason, I just started feeling really sick."
"How could eggs possibly do that?" Minerva asked.
"I don't know." Replied Newt, then he had an idea. "Unless… " He said, putting a finger under his chin. Minerva cocked her head & raised her eyebrow, confused.
"Unless what?" She asked.
"Back into the kitchen, Minerva." Newt said, pointing towards the door. "I think I may have an assumption as to what caused our sickness." Newt ran passed Minerva and out the door, leaving Sheela perplexed at what happened.
"What's this?" She silently asked herself. She then ducked down to avoid Newt's gaze as he ran back into the bathroom, flushed the toilet he vomited in, and ran back out. Sheela ran around the house to the window in the kitchen, which she peeked inside of to see Newt & Minerva. Newt was holding the egg carton, inspecting it, moving it around in his hand, looking for an expiration date. He then put his hand on a part of the carton.
"Aha, here we are." He said, his finger on the expiration date. "Best before January 24th, 2005. We've eaten spoiled eggs, Minerva." Minerva placed her hand over her mouth, a bit surprised & embarrassed.
"Oh boy." She thought to herself. "Guess I should remember to have the fridge cleaned out more often. Well, Newt, looks like eggs will be one of the things that you'll have to buy when shopping later today." Newt looked at his chore list, read it to make sure Minerva was right, then looked back at the mink.
"Yes, Minerva." He replied. "I will." Meanwhile, Sheela was watching this revelation, completely perplexed by the whole thing. Her eyes were wide & her mouth was hanging open. Her plan to make Minerva assume Newt wasn't a good cook and question his worth in her house was foiled by eggs that expired.
"I don't believe this." She said to herself. "The eggs had already expired. My concoction foiled by spoild eggs." She turned around & leaned against Minerva's house, sliding down the side into a seated position. She crossed her arms over her chest & begun to think. "It seems I may have to come up with another way to drive my brother out of that mink's home." She began to think.
Meanwhile, Newt had thrown away the expired eggs (including the ones he accidentally served himself and Minerva), and the two finished the rest of their breakfast. Afterward, Minerva went out for a jog while Newt stayed home to dust her house. He left the dishes to soak in the sink while he dusted, planning on coming back to them once he dusted the living room. Sheela peeked in from the living room window, watching Newt dust the house. She racked her brain trying to come up with another plan. She scanned the inside of the room, hoping to find some way to use Newt's current duty against him. Her eyes then fell upon the dishes soaking in the sink. She eyed them scrutinizingly.
"It seems my brother has left the dishes unattended." She thought to herself. Then her eyes went wide as inspiration struck her. She then smiled evilly as she slowly ducked down. Sheela then came to the kitchen window and slowly opened it. She pulled out a small vial containing some purple liquid. Using her thumb, she popped the lid off the bottle, and poured said bottle's contents into the sink. She smiled down at the sink, watching the water turn purple.
"Brilliant." She said to herself. With that, she disappeared from the window. She snuck back over to the living room window, gazing through it at Newt, who was still busy dusting. She scanned the room again, looking for anything else she might use. Her gaze then turned to a shelf full of books. She smiled evilly as inspiration hit her. "Yes." She said to herself. "Perhaps if I were to damage the minks book collection, she will blame my brother, and will be further driven to kicking him out." She narrowed her eyes. "Be prepared, Newt." Sheela said silently and sinisterly. "For these will be your final hours within this abode." She then slunk under the window to hide.
Soon enough, Newt finished dusting in the living room, and went back into the kitchen to scrub the dishes from breakfast, having decided they've been soaking long enough. Seeing her opportunity, Sheela made her move. She slithered into the room like a snake, across the floor, and over to the bookshelf. She was certain her brother would be too busy with her latest surprise to notice what she was doing to the bookshelf. Newt walked over to the sink and peered in. He frowned slightly and raised an eyebrow curiously as he noticed that the water was purple.
"Hmmm." He thought to himself. "Strange. The soap never did that to the water before. Maybe I should look into it once the dishes are done." Newt reached into the sink and pulled out a saucer, and his eyes bulged and his pupils shrank as he saw that the formerly-white dish was now purple. "W-W-What!?" He shouted in disbelief. He looked back down into the sink, then back up at the saucer in his hand, he switched his view between them a couple more times before resting back on the sink full of purple water. He put the saucer down next to the sink and reached in for another bit of silverware. He pulled out a bowl, and found, to his horror, that it was also purple. He systematically reached into the sink and pulled out all the silverware one piece at a time.
Much like the saucer and bowl, everything else that was in the sink had, much to Newt's confusion and horror, turned purple. He stared at them, all, a look of horror on his face. "W-What is all this!?" He said. "The soap never did this before! Oh no! Oh no! If Minerva sees this, oh what she might say! I have to right this wrong before she gets home!" Newt reached under the sink and pulled out a brush on a stick. He picked up the bowl and immediately began vigorously scrubbing it. Sheela's hearing allowed her to hear Newt's frantic scrubbing, that, and she heard his panicking from in front of the bookshelf.
"Heh heh heh heh." Sheela laughed. "Scrub all you want, brother. That is a permanent dye of my own design. I can assure you that it will never come out." She then returned to attention to the bookshelf in front of her, rubbing her hands over each other as she stared at it maliciously. "And while you are busy with those dishes, I believe I will make a few adjustments to your master's book collection."
Newt lost track of time on how long he had been scrubbing the dishes in hopes of getting the purple colour off. He scrubbed and scrubbed the dishes as hard as he could, but he discovered, much to his horror, that, no matter how hard or how long he scrubbed, the dishes remained purple. What's more, he also found that, when he emptied the sink in hopes that new water might help, the inside of the sink was purple too. He bit his nails in horror upon his discovery. He was worried enough what Minerva would think if she discovered her dishes had turned purple. Now her whole sink was purple as well. Newt had no idea how he was going to get this colour removed before Minerva got back from her jog. Then, from outside, he heard a noise that chilled his bones.
"Hm hm HM HM hm hm hm"
Newt knew that noise well. It was Minerva humming a tune to herself. If he could hear it, it meant only one thing. "Oh no." He silently said in fright. He immediately rushed to the living room and looked out the window. Sure enough, Minerva was returning from her jog. Newt's blood chilled at the sight of this. "Oh no!" He thought to himself. "She is already home! I have to get the purple off those dishes now!" He turned around to head back to the kitchen, but as soon as he did, he made another horrifying discovery. He turned his gaze over to Minerva's bookshelf. His eyes bulged out of their sockets and grew twice as big as he was at what he saw. All of the books on Minerva's shelf had been destroyed. They all lay in a heap of ripped pages crumpled paper, and torn covers. Newt immediately rushed over to the pile and gazed down at it, his hands on either side of his head. "B-b-but, what!?" Newt asked in disbelief and horror. "How did this happen!?"
"How did what happen, Newt?"
Newt stood upright and dropped his arms to his sides in horror as he heard Minerva's voice. Slowly, he turned around, and sure enough, there was Minerva, standing in the door, looking at him. Sheela watched from under Minerva's couch, smiling evilly at the sight before her.
"Perfect." She thought to herself. "Now all I need to do is sit back and watch as that mink ejects him from her house."
Newt stared at Minerva, his mind having completely frozen. Minerva, meanwhile, noticed the pile of torn and crumpled papers and book covers, and the empty bookshelf. She looked back at Newt, her mood appearing to sour. "Newt?" Minerva asked, her voice appearing to darken.
"What happened here while I was gone?" Newt shook nervously as Minerva gave him a hard stare. Then, he cracked.
"I don't know!" He blurted out. "I was trying to scrub the purple out of the dishes when I saw you were returning home! But when I turned around to return to the kitchen, I saw your books like this!" Minerva raised an eyebrow.
"Purple dishes?" She asked. She turned her gaze over to the kitchen, where she saw, sitting next to the sink, the purple dishes Newt was scrubbing. She walked into the kitchen, and emerged from it, holding the purple dishes in her hands. Newt looked at Minerva with pure horror on his face, afraid of what Minerva might do next. Sheela, meanwhile, watched from her hiding place, evil and satisfaction on her face. "Newt?" Minerva said. Newt hung his head, his expression changing from fear to sadness.
"I am truly sorry, Minerva." He said, voice full of sorrow. "I do not know what happened. If you wish to punish me for my error, I will not resist." Minerva stared at Newt for a few seconds, then looked back down at the purple dishes.
"Actually." Minerva said. "I think this shade of purple lends some character to these dishes." Newt looked back up at Minerva, surprise and confusion on his face. Meanwhile, from under the couch, Sheela's eyes widened in shock, and her smile disappeared from her face.
"Huh?" Newt asked.
"What!?" Sheela shouted in her mind. Minerva looked up at Newt, smiling.
"These dishes were pretty bland when they were just white. Now they have personality. Same goes for the sink, too. So thanks for spicing these things up, Newt. Oh, and don't worry about those books either. I've read them all over and over again to the point that I've gotten tired of them. I was going to throw them out anyway, but kept putting it off. This actually saves me the trouble." Minerva then leaned forward and put her hand on Newt's shoulder, looking Newt in the eyes. "Thanks, Newt." She said. She then leaned in and kissed Newt on the cheek. At this, Newt's whole body went straight as a board, his arms stuck out at his sides, and he started to shake while smoke started billowing at his feet, all with a smile on his face. Then he launched into the air and started to zoom around the room like a rocket. Minerva watched him, laughing at the sight with her hand placed over her mouth.
When it was over, Newt floated to the ground like a leaf, a euphoric expression on his face, landing at Minerva's feet. Minerva was still laughing. She wished she could leave Newt down on the floor like that, but she knew that he still had chores to do.
"Ok, Newt, get up." She said. "You still have chores to do." That snapped Newt out of his euphoria, and he was back on his feet shortly afterward.
"Of course, Minerva." Newt said. "Of course." With that, Newt went back to dusting the rest of Minerva's house. Minerva smiled and went to change out of her jogging clothes. From under the couch, Sheela's expression went from shock to seething anger. "Unbelievable!" She thought to herself. "My plans were foiled again by my brother's luck! Well, no matter. His luck will run out in due time. Until then, I must wait for a new opportunity to present itself." With that, Sheela slunk back under the couch, out of view, to wait and plan what her next move would be.