Elijah was having a rough time, which meant that Evelyn, by proxy, was also flying through some emotional turbulence. It had only been a few weeks since her brother had begun to show signs that he was a genuine seer, and adjusting to their new reality was taking some time. Eli was frightened of the ability, and Evie thought she knew why. Her mind was her sanctuary, and always had been. It was the one place in the world that she owned, and she took solace in the fact that she could hide there whenever she pleased and bask in the company of any fictional characters she chose, in any fictional world she liked. If, all of the sudden, her consciousness and her control were taken from her, she wasn't sure what she'd do. All she knew was that she would be crushed. Some may have been jealous upon discovering that their sibling had an ability that set them apart, but Evie felt no envy for this particular skill. In fact, she felt guilty – they'd been able to share every other burden in life. Why not this one? 

It wasn't just the weight of the change that was bogging her down on this particular Monday, however. Two days ago, on the evening of the 16th, Elijah had, in her presence, made another prophecy, and this time it seemed far less vague than the first. Unfortunately, using their combined abilities at prophetic interpretation, the Grimlish twins were only able to come to one obvious conclusion- the prophecy was about Evie, and it suggested that she was going to be stalked by something ominous. The prophecy had specifically said 'a dark shadow'. Now, not only were Evie and Eli trying to find some normalcy in the midst of change, they also had to worry about what would happen when this 'shadow' caught up to her. Evie's relationship to fate had her nervous, but ready to face whatever the universe had to throw at her. On the other hand, Eli's response was a little more... active. He hadn't stopped following her around since Saturday night, even when it meant standing sentry outside of the girl's loo. She was beginning to think that the prophecy referred, not to some dark presence or ill intentioned individual, but to Elijah. On Sunday, when the prophecy was still fresh, his vigilance had been comforting – but by Monday, when she'd woken up to find her sleepless brother standing guard outside of the entrance to her dorm room, she was ready to take her chances with fate.

She thought she'd have a moment to herself around 1:00, when Elijah usually had Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but just when she thought she might finally be rid of him, he informed her that he intended to skip. All day she'd been looking forward to her private time, and suddenly it was taken from her. It was maddening! She knew he meant well but, when it came down to it, they didn't know if this prophecy was going to manifest itself in ten minutes or in ten years, and, as a dedicated introvert, she could not imagine spending the rest of the week, let alone the rest of her life, knowing she was never alone and was always being watched! She needed some time to recharge, to go and be with nature. She wouldn't need long – just an hour, maybe two – and then she'd see him at dinner. She spent the whole afternoon plotting her escape and, the moment he went to use the toilet, she bolted, despite very specific directions to stay put.

She headed straight for the forest, because that was the one place she knew for certain would help her to clear her head. It was partly cloudy, but not snowing, so while the ground was cold and wet, she managed to keep herself dry and warm as she went parading through the trees. She had a book in her backpack that she'd been enamored with recently – a travel diary detailing a young wizard's solo adventures in the Amazon – and all she wanted was enough time to get through an entry or two. She sat herself at the base of a tree, sitting atop the train of her cloak, and curled up with the book. If a dark shadow wanted to devour her, at least she'd be in her happy place when it happened.

Day two – still no creepy shadows, no grim, no bad omens. Day two – no sleep, skipped classes, no shower, tinkled once. There was obviously something wrong with this situation, and though the lack of sleep was totally messing with Elijah’s brain functioning, he was still running scenarios in his head. What would happen if someone were to kidnap his twin, his other half? He couldn’t deal with that, especially while his body was going through all this stress! Not that that meant that he could deal with it if everything were peachy, because either way, losing your sister would totally suck.

He’d already skipped Storm’s class (he’d probably end up serving detentions for a month), and was about to burst his pants. He’d tried to convince Evie to come into the loo with him, but she refused and Eli simply couldn’t hold it any longer. After leaving her with explicit instructions to stay put he ran into the restroom and took care of business. Less than two minutes later, Eli was standing in front of the door to the boy’s loo, staring out at an empty hallway. A look of pure terror crossed his face and he started sprinting down the hall, knowing that she couldn’t have gotten far.

What if someone apparated her out of Hogwarts? What if someone shrunk her to the size of a beetle? What if she got sucked into the shadows? What if she got attacked by a dementor?

As he pounded down the hallways, screaming his sister’s name at the top of his lungs, thoughts of terror and wickedness flowed unhindered through his mind. Classes were in session, and thankfully no teachers came storming out of their classrooms to hand him undue punishments, because Eli didn’t have time to stop and listen to them berate him over something so silly. He headed first to the dorms, in case Evie just happened to forget her books or something (yeah right, Evie carried practically EVERYTHING on her), then he scampered down all the flights of stairs and bounded into the entrance courtyard. It was freezing out, and though Eli had on a cloak, he’d not thought to grab his heavy coat in his desperation.

A shiver, both from cold and fear, passed through his body as he searched methodically through the grounds. He’d stopped calling out for her, knowing that if someone heard him yell, they’d simply change directions, and Elijah didn’t want to make kidnapping his sister any easier. He looked for ages, or at least what felt like ages, before finally stumbling upon her, beneath a tree, reading a book. “EVELYN FAYE GRIMLISH! What are you doing out here? I’VE BEEN SO WORRIED! You could have been killed,” In a look surprisingly akin to the look of Antoinette when Eli’d been mischievous, the Ravenclaw lad put his hands on his hips and looked down on her with fire in his eyes.

This was going far better than she could have hoped! Although she was losing feeling in her fingertips, the cold was a small price to pay for some sweet, sweet solitude. Her book, which she'd been trying to take in slowly so that it might last as long as possible, was filled with just as much fascinating novelty as always, and she had no trouble imagining herself in the place of the adventurous author, who described the feeling of having a tree against his back in words that spoke directly to her soul. He seemed so very present, and his every word tickled her imagination, causing it to writhe and stretch, filling her mind with ideas and possibilities. She'd really needed this break. Although she was immersed in the world of the rainforest, she was not so absorbed that she didn't hear someone approaching, snapping twigs underfoot. Her head shot up, and her hand immediately went to her wand, which was resting atop her lap. She held her breath. Was this her shadow, come to claim her?

No. It was worse.

She looked up at him, her face a stoic mask. He was probably the only person in the world who could have read any hint of emotion in that face – the tightened jaw, which meant she was aggravated, the barely arched brows which meant she wasn't in the mood to chat. “I'm reading,” she responded, knowing full well that it wasn't the answer he wanted. She set her wand down and protectively cradled the open book toward her belly. She'd really hoped it might take him a little longer to find her. She didn't know exactly how long it had been, but the way that the light filtered down and hit the pages of the book hadn't changed, which meant it hadn't been very much time at all. Couldn't he have given her fifteen more minutes? This break from Elijah's nannying was like getting a single forkful of a full sized slice of cake – delicious, but not quite satisfying. She wanted more.

She did not move, but looked into her brother's face from the ground. “If it is a true prophecy, it will happen,” she reminded him. “It will happen whether you are there are not, and right now I need privacy,” she informed her brother, the final words in her statement emerging on the tail end of a desperate half-whine. This wasn't the first time he'd gotten this privacy schtick from her. Growing up, it seemed to take a lifetime to instill in Elijah the difference between play time and private time. Some days it seemed like nobody understood her need to recharge in solitude after a day spent trying to navigate the social world. “I'm going to read until the end of this entry and then I'll come and find you, alright?”

There she was, as bold as she wanted to be, acting as if nothing in the world were wrong. Yes, Elijah could tell she was aggravated, but her aggravation was minor to the emotions running through her twin at that very moment. Eli’s features turned poisonous as he glared at his sister. It wasn’t often that Eli became upset with his sister – she was, after all, his rock and she was a much calmer individual than Eli. Now that he was upset, he was simply livid. How could she be so freaking selfish? Eli completely understood her need for privacy; Elijah simply wasn’t able to allow it. Not until after this freaky vision came to pass.

“No, Evelyn, it most certainly is not alright. You honestly think I’m going to leave you out here, all alone flouncing around the forest, full of shadows I might add, to read a book?!? Come on. You can read your book in the common room, we can share a couch by the fire and you can read,” See? he can be compromising when necessary. He dusted his hands on his pants and then stuck his hand in front of his sister’s face, offering her a hand up.

“And what’s this about ‘if it’s a true prophesy it’ll happen’? Would you rather get kidnapped by some creepy shadow when you’re alone, or do you wanna have someone that cares for you there, so that they can protect you? The prophesy said nothing about how long this shadow would be around you, so I’m not letting you out of my sight. Period.” His tone was final, his hand still pointed toward Evie’s head. “Come on now, it’s cold out here,”

Saying that he understood her need for privacy but wouldn't allow it was like saying he understood a fish's need for water but wanted to walk around holding it anyway. If he kept this up then she was going to die. The more time she was forced to spend in the constant company of anyone, the more tired and overstimulated she felt, until it seemed like there was no room in her skull for her. It was hard enough living in the castle without any real space of her own. She didn't want to feel like she was being evicted from her sanity. If this shadow was coming to kill her, she didn't want her last moments to be spent in misery. She wanted her trees! Her sky! Her mental integrity!

She did not take his hand when offered. In fact, she deliberately looked away, staring off into the abyss just past him, as though he didn't exist at all. She would have her break, even if she had to take it by force. She wasn't outright ignoring him yet, however, just refusing to meet his eyes. She'd spent hours upon hours off by herself, reading or writing or dreaming in this very forest, taking her chances in this no man's land. If she did die, this seemed like a wonderful place to depart from. She'd seen so much death recently, as though the universe had been trying to warn her that this was coming. She'd said as much to their mother in her last letter. She believed that the world itself was looking out for her. It wouldn't be sending her glassy eyed omens if it didn't care.

“You said nothing about kidnapping during the trance. That's an assumption,” she retorted flatly. Objectivity was one of the harder aspects of prophetic interpretation, but Elijah should have known better. “A dark shadow will lurk in the wake of this seer's other half,” she spoke, quoting the prophecy, which she'd recorded in her journal and since memorized. Oddly, as soon as the words left her lips she could swear she felt eyes on her – and not Elijah's. She curled her fingers tighter around her book. Shadow or no shadow, she had no plans to back down on this issue. If she survived this shadow encounter then she wanted to set a precedent.  “Go and take a shower, and by the time you're washed up I'll be in the common room again. I only want to read until the end of this entry. I need a few more minutes, Elijah, please.”

This girl was infuriating! The calmness with which she could run from her twin, the haughtiness she displayed when he tried to help her, and her refusal to comply with what was obviously best for her all added together to make Elijah want to pull his hair out… literally. His hands reached up, grabbing clumps of messy dark hair and tugging. His eyes were opened wide and his nostrils were flaring in frustration.

The way he looked at it, he had two choices: either lose his sister to the shadows of dooooooom or make her irreparably angry with him. The choice was easy. “Stop being so technical, Evie! Nothing good can come from a shadow following you! I’m sorry that you’re upset, but you’re going to come inside with me. Period.” He didn’t pose it as a question – Evelyn would be coming into the castle, if Eli had to drag her kicking and screaming.

The please caused Eli to hesitate a bit. It was so rare that Evie actually asked anything serious of her brother, and when she did, Eli did everything in his power to make it happen. This time was different though! Didn’t she understand that Eli couldn’t survive if anything happened to her? Didn’t she know how much she meant to him? They were two halves of the same whole and one simply couldn’t live without the other.

“Staying out here, alone, is beyond the point of foolishness. You can read your book in the common room. I’ll shower when this shadow is found out. I’ve already got a couple members of the Divination Club trying to get some more information on what we’re facing. Evelyn, do you realize that you’re in the forbidden forest where shadows breed like maggots? Please. Please understand where I’m coming from?” His shoulders slumped – all fight draining from his body.

It was a feeling that came over her every now and then, and it was hard for Evelyn to put her finger on exactly what it was. It felt like someone was walking over her grave, but the sensation was not quite as fleeting as that. More specifically, it seemed like the universe had eyes and had them trained on her exclusively, watching and waiting for her to act. She straightened up, her vertebrae stacking, and began to look around her, moving as slowly and deliberately as an ancient tortoise might. She took in a breath and held it in her lungs so that the sounds around her might sound sharper in her ears. For such a silent place, the forest could really be deafeningly loud when you paused to take in the sound of every leaf rustling, every creature stalking, and the flap of every set of wings. She was listening to Elijah's futile pleading, but her senses were distracted. She released her breath quietly through her nose and turned her eyes back to him.

” Evelyn, do you realize that you’re in the forbidden forest where shadows breed like maggots? Please. Please understand where I’m coming from?”

“Maggots don't breed. They are immature flies in the larvae stage,” she corrected him, clearly still distracted by some unseen thing. Still moving with the deliberately pokey speed of something large and ancient, Evie took her book and put it away in her backpack, scarcely making a sound. It may have seemed, for the moment, like Elijah had won the battle. She wasn't thinking about his argument just then, however. She was thinking about those eyes, which she could feel leering at her. The look wasn't malicious. It was passive, but curious – but still unsettling. She grasped her wand as she rose to her feet. “Be silent for a moment,” she urged, her voice barely a hiss as she gave the surrounding environment another scan. She didn't want to move too suddenly. “Do you feel something?” Before she could take a proper step there was a loud rustling sound coming from somewhere nearby, though it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. The sound set off a chain reaction, and a bird abruptly took wing, sending a few clumps of snow careening down to the ground from a tree. Something scampered, and Evie backed up, pressing herself against the trunk of the tree she'd been sitting against, hidden but vigilant.

He was winning! It was obvious in the way that Evelyn was moving. Though she was going slowly, she was moving, putting her things away, and getting ready to head back to the castle with him. Had he not been so excited about winning the fight, he would have noticed the prickling in the back of his skull. He might have felt the hair on the back of his neck start to stand on end, and maybe, just maybe, he would have heard the rustling in the branches before it was too late. A smile made its way to Eli’s face as he looked at his sister.

“Oh Evie, who cares about baby flies? Just hurry up!” His voice, like always, was loud and boisterous – so the sound of his sister asking him to be quiet was nothing out of the ordinary. He ignored her, and went to open his mouth to tumble out another stream of excited banter when her next words stopped him in his tracks:

“Do you feel something?”

Then, things happened in quick succession. First, Eli shut his mouth and grabbed his hand-me-down wand. Second, a loud rustling came from the surrounding bushes, making Eli step in front of his sister with his game face on. And third, a loud ’yooooooowling’ came from somewhere near. Being the natural astronomer that he was, Elijah’s first reaction was to look up, but then again, hearing a sound from above someone would make anyone look up.

A second later, he let out the barest of sighs, it had just been the bird. As Elijah brought his eyes back down, however, he took a step back, bumping slightly into his sister. Padding out from behind a bush was a bright orange ball of nasty. The cat looked like it must have the mange or something worse. With its matted orange fur, malnourished, ‘I want to kill the world’ look, Eli was sure it was of little threat – which brought his attention back to the surrounding area. Surely a yucky kneazle wasn’t what had caused all that commotion?

“Evie,” He whispered, “I think it’s best if we walk slowly and quietly out of the forest – okay?”

“One black bird on the wing,” Evie breathed, her voice nearly silent in her brother's ear as her eyes followed that bird on its ascent into the pale winter's sky. She swallowed hard, moistening her throat, which felt suddenly dry. “Protection.” It didn't make her feel any better in the moment, although it probably should have. Having protection just reinforced the idea that there was something she needed to be protected from, and she could still feel every upright hair on the back of her neck shouting danger. She released the softest, airiest sigh through her nose as her survival senses kicked in and her eyes began to scan the surroundings. She did not, however reach for her wand. She had decided long ago that her wand would never become a weapon, so she wouldn't wield it as such – there was no point in posturing, especially when your enemy was a shadow.

Shadows weren't usually ginger colored, however, or furry, and they didn't usually have bright, marble-like eyes that seemed to glow in the low light of the forest. Evie knew shadows, but she knew creatures better and more innately, and this poor soul seemed to be both shadow and creature. It was fading away before her eyes. She could see ribs where there should have been a round belly, skin where there should have been plush, exotically spotted fur, and a limp where there should have been an easy, confident gait. Its ears looked huge in comparison to its tiny, emaciated looking face, with those pleading eyes staring out hauntingly, daring anyone to so much as suggest it was weak. Kneazles weren't quite cats. Kneazles could take care of themselves. They were fierce and loyal and intelligent. They did not, however, live in forests. Evie knew how to identify feral creatures as well as anyone, seeing as she and Elijah had once been feral creatures.

”Evie, I think it’s best if we walk slowly and quietly out of the forest – okay?”

Evie shook her head 'no,' looking very decisive about that response, though she didn't move any other part of her body. She kept herself about as still as she did whenever she was lost in the pages of a book, during times when  her body was left behind while her mind was off on some adventure. She had her eyes locked on the creature's, staring into those slitted orbs with the same kind of passive curiosity that the kneazle's eyes displayed. It was a curious thing, finding a kneazle in the forest. Had it escaped from some sombre situation, or had it merely been left behind? Ever part of her wanted to scoop it up and cuddle it back to health and give it scritches behind its giant ears, but she knew better than to think that such behavior would be received well.

“It's hurt,” she told Eli softly, watching as the kneazle sat in a very awkward manner, seeming to favor three of its legs above the fourth. Its whole nose was stripped of fur, as though it had been rubbed clear off. “It might be sick, too,” she added, her voice quivering slightly. By that point, Elijah most likely knew she had no plans to up and leave that forest. If it wasn't obvious then, it would become even more obvious a moment later, when Evie plopped right back down on the freezing ground, as bold as ever. “I don't want this one to die. Stay, too, if you like. I want to watch it and see if it might need help.” She was tense, but no longer frightened. A sense of purpose was a good distraction.

Obviously Elijah was more messed up than he was letting on. Usually the first to see omens and point them out to his twin, this time he was far behind. Honestly, even after she spoke, he didn’t register her words, and the protection only made Elijah feel as if he needed to be that bird. Eli needed to be his sister’s protection. She, on the other hand, obviously didn’t feel as if he needed to be there at all. Evie was a peculiar individual, and Elijah knew her better than any other on the planet. Had he been truly selfless, he’d have heeded her requests, his own feelings be damned! Evie was one of a kind; she truly would rather meet her end surrounded by dank, dirty, wet trees than guarded around the clock by an overactive and probably stinky brother.

Eli, however, wasn’t being selfless. He was extremely selfish, and he felt like he deserved it! Was it not these stupid visions that showed Eli that his other half was in danger? He was slowly losing his identity to this curse, and yet Evie couldn’t be bothered to just humor him? But even as the thought passed through his mind, he instantly regretted it. It wasn’t Evie’s fault that he was having a hard time transitioning, and he couldn’t change who she was just to make him feel better – he should have learned that in the sixteenish years that they’d been together.

From the moment the unhinged creature padded from the bushes, Elijah knew they were doomed. Evie could never leave a creature out in the wilderness to fend for themselves, and truly, Eli couldn’t leave it in good conscience either. He groaned, a low grumble showing a deep dislike for the situation fate had dealt. “Well of course we can’t leave him,” he said sarcastically – his voice directed at the situation rather than at his sister. Though it was chilly, and Eli was scantily clad for the occasion, he too joined his sister in the snow.

“I’ll keep watch and you try and lure him to you?” He flashed his twin the smallest of smiles. Truly, this could be good for Eli. It was a distraction from his own mind, and if Evie made friends with a new friend, maybe she’d stop worrying about Eli as much as she had been. His wand, still in hand, moved from the face of the kneazle to the surrounding wood. “Just be careful, we don’t know if it has anything,”

Although Evie had been schooling her facial expressions for so long that keeping them subdued was as natural to her as breathing, she always seemed slightly more animated when in the company of her brother. Wherever he was, Elijah was her comfort zone. Perhaps that was why she was so quick to shoot him a look in response to his needlessly sarcastic comment, her eyes narrowed and her lips growing tight. That flash of bitterness only lingered for a moment, though.

 “I don't know that I'm taking him anywhere. I might and I might not,” she explained, her quiet voice emerging extra soft. The creature was feral, which meant that it was as good as wild – but she wasn't sure that the environment was ideal for such a creature. Your run of the mill stretch of woods may have been a happy home for a kneazle, at least for a time, but this forest had secrets, and one of those secrets seemed to have gotten hungry and taken a bite out of this poor kitty's hind leg. She didn't know whether or not this kneazle had come to live there by accident, but she suspected abandonment. It wasn't doing well in this environment, and she knew too well what that could be like. All she wanted to do was watch and see if there was some way she could help.

”I’ll keep watch and you try and lure him to you?”

“It's going to take a very long time,” she warned him, and, as if to illustrate her point, the creature up and ran a few paces deeper into the brush, crunching things underfoot. His gait was definitely off and, furthermore, once she'd gotten a quick look at its backside, she couldn't be quite sure it was a he she was dealing with at all. He didn't go far, however. She could still see phosphorescent eyes glinting in the dark. He was just doing what she was doing – taking interest, and then stepping back to observe. It would probably be a long, unstable standoff. The cat would have to get used to her and decide, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was a safe person, though she expected that curiosity might come into play before long.

Evie turned to look at the other wild creature who she was looking after, catching sight of her smiley Elijah, who she found a lot more endearing now than she had earlier. “Thank you,” she told him, catching him around the neck and planting a goofy sibling kiss right into his hair. “Stay quiet,” she whispered, breathing the warning right into his ear while she had it close. “He seems social, so the quieter we are, the quicker he'll trust us.”

Eli simply looked at his sister as she spouted out nonsense about not taking the creature anywhere. She, even moreso than Eli, couldn’t stand to leave an animal hurt in the wilderness. A memory flashed through his mind of a moment long ago when Eli and Evelyn had been exploring the area around their home – not long after being brought back to the Grimlish Manor. The two had run across a tiny bird, having obviously fallen out of its nest. The twins, still unsure of their new family, had hidden the creature under Eli’s bed, and nursed the baby back to health as good as they knew how.

While cleaning under the bed, the twin’s grandmother found the tiny box they kept the baby in and not long after, the baby was back in the wild, good as new. It was amazing the work that magic could do to heal, and after that incident, the Grimlish household was always accepting of downtrodden creatures. That event, more than anything, helped Elijah to trust his family, and now he couldn’t imagine ever not being a Grimlish, and all that came with it.

A shiver ran through the boy’s body and he scooted even closer to his twin, careful not to rustle too much. The kitty had already moved back a few feet, but was still watching intently, so Eli knew it hadn’t lost interest. “Evie, you realize we could simply stun the thing, right?” He whispered quietly into his sister’s ear. She’d planted a sloppy twin kiss on him, and though he refrained from planting one right back on her, he did nudge her playfully in the shoulder.

His attitude, though improved drastically, was still tense. His wand was still pointed randomly into the night, and though he would feel much more comfortable lighting the tip, he knew the disadvantages of such a move. Letting his eyes adjust to the night was much better than lighting a small space before him. If his light were to go out for any reason, he’d be blinded, and that simply wasn’t good when a shadow was lurking. Though, by the way the kneazle was staring at Evie, he wasn’t totally sure that the shadow wasn’t the beast. The catlike creature hadn’t so much as glanced at Elijah since he’d moved his wand from the beast’s face.

Evie had come a long way since she was a skittish, secretive eight year old who had never owned a pet and insisted on caring for baby animals under her brother's bed. She'd always loved animals, but it had taken a lot of time, patience, reading, and practical experience to become the gentle tiger whisperer that she was today. People were difficult and horribly complex, and while she did care for people, it took creativity and empathy and a certain fearlessness to deal with animals, and her skill set was far better suited to that kind of interaction. The Grimlish home had been a great place to learn, starting with bats and garden fairies. In all of that time, however, Evie had never shown the slightest bit of interest in owning a pet of her own.

It didn't seem to make sense outside of her own mind. Why wouldn't a supposed animal lover look forward to the prospect of owning and caring for an animal of her choosing? The truth was complex, and the Ravenclaw girl wasn't sure that she could have explained it if she'd tried. When it came down to it, she just wasn't sure she needed another thing to care about – another living creature that would suffer if she were to leave it behind. She already had Elijah to worry about. She was happy spoiling the pets of others, and doing what she could for the rest of the creatures she encountered out in the world, not to mention breeding her fairies. She didn't keep animals, though, which was why she was wary about bringing what was clearly a pet animal into an environment that was as far removed from the wilds of the forest as you could get. She couldn't just release it back out into the world in good conscience after that. It was complex, and she wasn't sure what to do. She started with waiting and watching.

”Evie, you realize we could simply stun the thing, right?”

“If we need to, but not any sooner,” she whispered back, her voice little more than a light breeze passing by her brother's ear. She maybe have preferred gentleness, but she knew that sometimes animals didn't and couldn't understand a human's best intentions, and the only way to help them was to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. It hurt her to do it. That was why she was in no rush to subdue this creature. Besides, there was another, closer creature who needed subduing far more immediately than the kneazle did. “You smell bad,” she whispered again, after taking another putrid whiff of her brother's unwashed scalp. She'd do better to stun Elijah and drag him into the shower.

A lot of time passed – minute after monotonous minute - and Evie was stuck smelling her highly pungent brother for the duration. The kneazle did come out of the brush again, but only briefly, and the animal was just as quick to tuck tail and head back into the depths of the forest the moment Eli shifted a stiff shoulder. The air grew no warmer, and the light became even sparser, and eventually even the ever-patient Evie was ready to give up. It was a good start, she thought. All of that time sensitizing the creature to their presence wouldn't be for nothing. Kneazles were smart – kneazles remembered. The intelligence in those glowing eyes was not just for show. “Perhaps we should go inside and find him something to eat. That's most important. I can try again tomorrow,” she whispered to her brother. Nothing in her knapsack would be suitable for a cat's supper since none of the food she carried on her contained so much as a trace of meat. As she rose to her full height, slowly and carefully, she fully expected the creature to bolt, intimidated by her stature – not to mention Elijah's, who was taller than she was.

The cat did not move. In fact, it seemed to be waiting.

“Stand here, Elijah. I'd like to try something,” she hissed, slowly taking up her backpack before she turned on her heel and walked a few paces back toward the school, leaving her brother to let her know what the kneazle did in her absence. She had a feeling the creature was there for her.

Of the two, it was obvious that Evelyn was the one that could woo any creature. Elijah’s personality didn’t allow for extended periods of wait time, he was easily frustrated when things didn’t go in any direction at all, and when it came down to it, animals simply didn’t like him. Other than Vlad, his mum’s bats, and Evelyn’s fairies, all manner of creature fled from the sight of Elijah, and he could only assume it was because he and his sister were half-vampire. He’d always thought that Evie had inherited the human half and Elijah the more undead half, but would never venture to inform her of this fact, lest she think he were finding ways of distancing himself from her, which he would never in a bajillion million years do.

As they waited, and Evelyn commented on his funk, Elijah simply groaned silently. He’d gotten synthesized to the smell and his nasal cavities didn’t even register the icky smell any longer. She was right though, as soon as he had a chance to figure out what this shadow thingy was, he was in dire need of bathing. As the minutes pressed on and on, Elijah started to drift in and out of consciousness. Sleep sounded sooooooooo good to the Ravenclaw, and with his head leaning on his sister’s shoulder, there’d be no way she could disappear without Elijah knowing. Evelyn had always been the heavy sleeper, and Eli the lighter one. If she so much as twisted her neck, Eli would be awake and alert in an instant.

He didn’t, after all, think that this shadow they were looking for was a wittle kitty – even if that kitty was really a wild feral beastie. Evie had handled much worse, and truly, if the thing attacked, he’d only be digging himself a hole with his sister if he tried to help. She was totally against animal cruelty. Not that Elijah went around kicking puppies… but he wasn’t against throwing the entrails of a dying bird unto a stone to read the signs it foretold. That was another little known fact, and one he hoped his sister would never know.

When she did move, Elijah opened his eyes slowly, trying his best not to let his sister know that he’d been drooling on her shoulder just moments before. When she spoke for him to not move, Eli was only too happy to oblige. The kneazle didn’t seem to like him much and Eli needed to have his wand out, just in case the real shadow appeared before Evelyn was done with the animal.

As she walked away, the catlike creature paused; his eyes trained on Elijah’s twin and then glanced back to where Eli was sitting. Still as a statue, the creature didn’t find any cause for alarm and with a swish of its rugged tail, took a few cautious steps toward Evie. “It’s moving!” He hissed, trying not to startle the beast, even though with every syllable, the cat retreated another step, “It was following you!”

The smile that shone forth from Evelyn's face was truly a rare and beautiful thing. Here amongst the trees, with only nature and her brother watching, she had nothing to guard against, so she smiled her secret smile and let it linger. It was a triumphant grin as well as a happy one, and seemed to say, wordlessly, 'I knew it'. She couldn't even get properly angry at Elijah for frightening the kneazle half way back to its previous spot. While it was an accomplishment in itself to be liked by a cat, as felines tended to be picky about who they wanted to befriend, that wasn't the entire motivation behind the appearance of her elusive grin. She'd had an idea, she'd tested it out, and it had come to pass that her thought held some merit. It was a lovely thing, to feel clever, and that feeling had come with a certain measure of relief.

Evie picked her way back over toward her brother, moving slowly and quietly so she wouldn't disturb her new friend any further. “It followed me, Elijah. I stepped into the light and it followed me!” she whispered, hoping he might catch on to the connection that she was trying to make. Her smile had lost some exuberance, but it hadn't fled completely.

She looked him right in the eyes, begging him to read her mind – a feat that even her twin could have trouble with at times. She'd never resembled Elijah more than she did now, with that playful, unabashedly excited smile on her face. Anyone who had doubted their resemblance before would surely see it now, if they'd been present during this private stakeout. “A dark shadow will lurk in the wake of this seer's other half,” she quoted the beginning of the prophecy again, her voice just the slightest breeze next to her brother's ear, “It will lurk in my wake. It will follow me, Elijah – not kidnap me, follow me.” She didn't think she could possibly make the connection any clearer without spelling it out in graffiti on the face of the moon: The kneazle is the shadow!

By then her smile had faded entirely, as it always did, her face resuming its natural, unreadable appearance. “Will you walk ahead?” she asked him, “Don't walk too far, but start toward the castle, and I will follow you.” It was a plan, announced at a whisper, but with the same sort of authority that Eli had been using earlier to no effect. Very tentatively, Evie removed her knapsack from her back and did something that she wouldn't, in a million eternities, do to anyone else – she handed the whole thing to her brother. “Get the blanket out and wait for me. It's in the large section, at the bottom.” The knapsack had charms on it that made it nearly bottomless, and it would take some shifting to get to the folded blanket she kept in there in case she ever found herself sleeping somewhere in the cold – or came across an animal she may have needed to swaddle. She was essentially entrusting Elijah with her whole world, even if she only intended to be separate from it for a moment. She had to do it, though. She wanted to help her shadow, not to mention make sure that he wasn't merely following her because he smelled something tasty amongst her things.

“Go,” she urged.  With any luck they could solve this today and Elijah could finally have a bath and a nap.