Chapter 8: Freddy

The dragons were able to shrink in size and appear as ordinary animals to humans. The dragons had taken a liking to cats since they didn't have to morph too much. The Elder was a very dark colored big cat and Esther was a big white cat. They even took on the personalities of cats when transformed so they didn't get detected by humans or other animals.

Granny had fed the kids their supper and left the room. Esther and the Elder were carefully watching. "Can you believe that goats are so friendly?" Avery said to Charlie. The boys had huddled together to talk quietly so the girls wouldn't hear them.

"Yeah, I've worked at the farm before. Did you get to meet Freddy?" Charlie asked.

"You know Freddy got attacked today by something…"

"What do you mean?"

"There was this dark I don't know. I don't believe the stories. It must have been a wild cat because this huge dark colored cat saved Freddy."

The Elder smiled from the ceiling hearing Avery gush about the encounter and how proud he was that Freddy was still alive. I knew I had to save the goat that rogue dragon would have ate the boy too.

--

Lexi was clinging to Ericka that night and crying about the shadows. She dreamed of hungry shadows sneaking up behind her and eating her. She woke up screaming. "No don't eat me!"

Ericka hushed her and hugged her tighter. She was completely inconsolable mumbling in her sleep and pointing to every corner in the room. Finally, a giant white cat jumped on top of them. Lexi held the cat close and stopped crying. "Hush now, my child. I won't let any shadow hurt you." A sudden calming voice said to her as she held on to the new animal.

"Lexi, I already told you that those are just scary stories that the teachers tell us to prevent us from going back home at night." Avery changed position to face Lexi and jumped at the sight of the cat. "What is that? Where did it come from?" He couldn't stop thinking about how there could be any more of those frightening things he saw earlier when he was with Freddy, the goat.

"It's okay. It's just- "Charlie said to Avery.

"Esther" the feline voice said in his mind. "My name is Esther." The cat looked up at him with what resembled a smile.

"It's just Esther. She's a friendly," Charlie paused trying to think of a way to explain what a cat was to Lexi. "Cat. Lexi, do you know what a cat is?"

Lexi pet Esther. "Cat? This thing?" Lexi pet Esther more. Esther purred and Lexi jumped nearly tossing Esther out of the bed.

"I am here to protect all of you" Esther said to Avery in his mind. "The dark one is my Elder. He won't hurt any of you either" Esther noticed the Elder pacing in the corner of the room. He transformed into a cat and sat near Avery.

"Yes Lexi, that is a cat. That noise means she's happy." Avery took over explaining since Charlie fell asleep. "She won't hurt you. She's going to make sure no one ever hurts you." Avery reached out to touch the dark cat but recoiled last minute remembering watching a shadow try to eat Freddy and how the cat had come to the rescue.

"She's right." The Elder said to Avery. "I protected you from that evil thing near Freddy. I will protect all of you no matter what," Avery started to pet the Elder gently.

"Lexi, these cats are like the birds from Ms. Patricia. They'll protect us." Avery turned to Charlie waking him up. "Did you know about that white cat before?"

Charlie nodded and fell back asleep.

"Ericka... I don't want to go to the home tomorrow. Why can't I go work with Ms. Patricia? I'm scared of shadows. The home has too many," Lexi twisted her fingers in Esther's fur. Ericka thought of explaining that was just the way things were that they had to work at the home for a week then they'd go back to Ms. Patricia.

"I can come with you there, dear" Esther spoke softly to Lexi in her mind. Lexi relaxed.

"I'll talk to Ms. Carol tomorrow for you, okay? Now let's go to sleep." Ericka said resentfully to Lexi because she knew that Lexi would be allowed to do whatever she wanted. The adults were always so nice to the youngest kid.

"No. It's okay. I'll go to the home. I'm taking Esther with us." Lexi snuggled into Esther and fell asleep.

Ericka almost laughed at how quickly Lexi changed her mind because of a cat. 'That must be one magical cat' she thought to herself.

"Yes, I am and I will protect both of you," Esther replied to Ericka's thought.

There was a lot crash outside.

Ericka's eyes shot open, "Did any of you hear that?" she asked but was replied with only snoring.

"Calm down." The cat said to Ericka and sneaked out of Lexi's arms. She ran to the door. Ericka was just blown away watching the cat, but the cat just scratched on the door. Then, she returned to Lexi's embrace like nothing had happened.

Esther had put a mark on the door to let other dragons know that this house was being claimed. She half wondered why the Elder hadn't done so yet, but this was probably something that she should have done weeks ago. She wondered if she had failed the Elder somehow by not doing this sooner.

The Elder smiled in his sleep feeling the power of the seal. 'Good job, Esther.' He thought to himself. He had left that job to Esther for when she felt that this was necessary. The Elder was just there to watch Esther with her mission to watch these kids. He would help her out as much as he could, but he couldn't overstep his bounds as elder which was only to watch. He had violated that enough by fighting the rogue dragon near Avery earlier.