Chapter 10: Precautions And Bonding

"Changing their last names?"

"It would make them harder to find, especially if we can find a judge to seal away the documents."

Phantasia stood by the window of her office in her mansion that could be called a castle as it was large in size, pondering Spooker's words. "I've been in touch with my informants and so far, all is good," she said. "The men looking for the children have been following up on false leads, leads that I believe Edna put in place to keep the twins safe."

"Edna wanted to keep them safe. This could help greatly and honor her wishes of those men never being able to find her children," Spooker said.

The mage nodded in agreement. "I can definitely see the benefit of it," she said. "Have you brought this up to the Hauntleys yet?"

"Not yet," the pumpkin-headed being said. "I wanted to run it by you first."

Just then, a purple bat flew into the room, squeaking and going over to a set of seeds that Phantasia had set up in the room, seeds that would grow into certain color roses if the seed was placed in the enchanted soil. Each seed was marked by color, but in a dark box for the bats to go in and select the seed they needed without anyone looking.

These bats were called messenger bats and Phantasia had created them herself. The bat now flew out of the box with a seed in its foot and it dropped the seed into the enchanted soil. The soil swallowed up the seed, which sprouted and grew into a bright green rose. The bat looked up at his master, who looked a bit grim.

"Our enemies are getting frustrated," she said, seeing a second bat fly in and this one went into the box for a seed too, grabbing one and flying out to the enchanted soil too, dropping the rose seed into it. This time, a rose colored black grew and Spooker's eyes widened.

"Our enemies may have found a clue that is panning out?" He asked.

Phantasia snapped her fingers and a ball of wind appeared in her hand, looking up at her questioningly with soft eyes. "We have some bad news," she said. "I need you to follow this messenger bat and find out what the men found. Poppy and Edgar's lives depend on it."

The wind swirl nodded and headed out with the bat while Phantasia turned to Spooker. "Talk to the Hauntleys right away about the twins' changing their last names. I will seek out a judge that can hopefully work with us on such short notice."

"I'm sure the judge you find will, considering it involves the lives of two children who are in danger as long as these men are free," Spooker said, leaving to go talk to the Hauntleys.

The mage sighed, worried. "We can't let Edna or the twins down," she said. "Or the Hauntleys and their friends and family for that matter."

She went through a nearby door, a cloaked figure sitting cross-legged glancing up as she came in and she looked at him, bowing in respect. "Lune, I am in need of guidance," she said.

"You seek a judge that can help keep the twins safe," the being said in a soft whisper.

"Yes," she said. "Also, we need to lead the men looking for them off the trail."

Lune stood up, his black cloak swaying a little as his hood moved back to reveal a china face mask. "There is one judge who you can contact, but you must hurry," he said, his voice still soft. "The judge helped my master years ago to protect his own daughter."

Phantasia nodded, recalling the story. Lune's master, who had been a mummy monster, had fallen for a human woman and they had a little girl, but not long after the baby was born, the mother had sadly been killed in a car crash and the mummy had sought out a judge to help protect his daughter. Together, the two had found a good family for the little girl and though it had pained the mummy to leave his daughter with another family, he loved her enough to make sure she'd always be safe.

Lune remembered that time and now removed his china mask, revealing a pale face that was scarred with eyes like a snake and a mouth like a cresent moon, hench his name, which was French for 'moon'.

"And then Master took you in as his apprentice," he said, a happy note heard in his soft voice.

Phantasia smiled, recalling that day before frowning as she remembered the day her master had passed on. Lune would have disappeared himself, but on her master's death bed, Phantasia had promised that she would take care of Lune, pointing out that she still needed guidance despite being a fully-graduated mage. Her master had been touched by her plea and agreed. Lune was grateful to his new master and promised to help her when she needed it.

The mage now took a deep breath. "Where does this judge that can help us live now?" She asked.

"You're in luck that he is visiting the courthouse in the very same city the Hauntleys live," Lune said. "He wrote that he'll be there for a week and was wondering if we needed help with anything."

"The timing is fortunate then," Phantasia said. "I'll go see him at once."

She headed off and Lune smiled. "She's so much like her master," he said to himself. "He'd be proud of her."

At the Hauntleys home, Vampirina was hanging out with Poppy and Edgar as they played Twister. "Hey, Poppy. Edgar, do you guys really like it here?" The young vampire asked.

"Yeah," Poppy said, smiling. "I love living here. Mom and Dad are so nice and you're a great sister, Vee."

Edgar nodded. "Mom and Dad didn't push us into calling them those titles right away and they even let us set up a memorial for our first mom," he said. "Once we adjusted to it, this place became cool, as did you, Vee."

Vampirina smiled before she went to reach for a green dot with her right hand since the dial, which was being spun by Demi, had landed on the marker for right hand on green. She suddenly felt herself overbalance. "Uh-oh," she said before she slipped and fell on top of Poppy, who squeaked in surprise as she fell down and accidentally bumped into Edgar, who yelped as he couldn't correct his own balance in time and fell down too.

It was quiet a moment before all three began laughing, finding it amusing before Edgar got up and helped his sisters up too. "So who won that round, Demi?" The boy asked.

"Well, technically you all fell down, so I think this round was a draw," the ghost said.

"That's okay," Vampirina said. "Want to try again?"

"Sure!" Poppy said.

They did another round. This time, Edgar fell down first as he couldn't reach a blue dot with his foot and he slipped, landing on his knees. "Well, I'm out," he said before going over to sit by Demi and watch his sisters to see who would win.

Poppy reached for a yellow dot with her left hand as Vampirina tried to do the same, but ended up poking her sister's side by accident, making the brown-haired girl giggle. "Hey!" She said playfully.

"Whoops, sorry Poppy," the vampire said apologetically as she just managed to touch a yellow dot with her fingertips.

When it was called for right hand on blue, the girls both tried, but their arms got crossed and they got stuck, to which they began laughing at the silliness of it, but also looked at Demi and Edgar. "Um, we're stuck," Poppy said.

And they genuinely were stuck. Poppy was underneath Vampirina's back while each had one arm crossed and tangled and Poppy's right leg was crossed under her left one, leaving her percariously balanced and Vampirina was stuck as her right leg was stretched under Poppy's crossed legs and her left foot was behind her. Chef Remy came up and when he saw what happened, he chuckled warmly.

"I guess the human game Twister does tie one up in knots," he said as he reached down, lifting Poppy up into his arms, which allowed Demi to help Vampirina. Both girls were giggling still. "You girls okay?" The skeleton asked.

"Yeah, thanks, Remy," Poppy said gratefully.

"And thanks, Demi," Vampirina said, smiling.

The siblings settled then for a game of Crazy Eights, or rather, Batty Bats, which was the monster version of Crazy Eights.

The siblings laughed with each other, making the moments they spent together wholesome and fun.


Please leave a review, but no flames!

GoldGuardian2418