At first, there was no visible change in the portrait. It was just as normal, until five minutes later.
The people in the hall first noticed that the painted family now had a scowl on their faces that had been absent before that time. As a matter of fact, the portraits had been smiling. But now, the smiles were off.
“Did you see that? Derek’s face has a frown now. It’s like he is pouting,’
‘Yes, I am seeing that. Do you think it is as a result of the magic the ancient is spurting…hey look! Little Eva’s mouth. She is angry!”
“Yes, I see that. What is happening? Why is the painting getting hostile?”
“Could it be that the pregnant ancient was right? Could there be magic spyware in the painting that is reacting with the magic?”
“Probably so! Omg! Look! What is that black smoke erupting from the painting?”
A black smokey figure emanated from behind the painting, and immediately the painting disintegrated into ashes.
The hall erupted in screams. Some people ran back, as the black ghouly creature started to move around, trying to escape from the ball that Sheila had created.
Freya smiled when she saw this. She turned aside and winked at Blenda who just nodded her head before facing Peter with a ‘I told you’ look. Melvina was abashed, just like the rest of the people.
“Oh wow. The real spy.” Yodah stated tiredly, reclining further into his chair. “This pack must be the dumbest in werewolf history.” He added, shrugging when Freya dropped a light punch on his shoulders.
His nonchalance spoke volumes to the members of the black moon pack who had always prided themselves as everly intelligent and upstanding. To have their ases handed back to them was so undignifying, especially in the face of their dignified guests.
“So, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to kill it?” Derek asked, the first to break away from the shock chain. Probably because he had always been adamant on his hate for his uncle, had even asked his mother to burn the painting at one time, specifically the next day when Arnold had left the pack after accomplishing his mission.
“We can’t kill the spy demon. The only thing we can do is to seal it away in something, or return it to its source. And since we don’t know the particular source from where it was conjured from, we will have to look for another object to seal it in.” Freya answered, looking around the hall, searching for a nice sealing object, but her eyes found none.
“What could be used?” Derek asked, getting up from the chair, ready to help in any way he can, since some of the issues happening here were partly his fault.
“Anything at all. Anything that would never be used again. We will also need to bury the object in the ground, so that the demon cannot escape or be conjured again.” Sheila answered this time around. From her studies years ago, she knew one or two about spy demons. Very nasty but dutiful creatures.
Just then, little Eva walked into the hall, from the hallway reserved for the alpha and his family. She was carrying her little doll as she sauntered into the hall, rubbing her eyes. It was obvious that she had just woken up from sleep. Her entrance captured and held the attention of the entire people in the pack. Freya smiled when she saw the little girl.
“Eva!!” She called, waving her hand to the little girl who was stupefied when she noticed the large crowd of people in the hall.
Eva had just woken from sleep, and after searching for her parents and her brother in their rooms and then the kitchen, but not finding them there, had resolved to find them in the great hall. She hadn’t been expecting this large a crowd in the morning. Meetings like this were always in the evenings.
A short smile appeared on her lips though when she noticed Freya, who was standing right in front of a glowing big ball, and a black monster inside it..
What was going on?
She looked to her right and saw her family sitting and staring, except for big brother, Derek who was standing.
What was going on? She wondered, speculating that the reason why they were gathered here was because of the dream she had had. She needed to tell them about her dream. She had been kidnapped by her uncle.
“Eva, come on. Freya is calling you. She has reports from Emma about you.”
Eva perked up when she heard Maya’s voice, when she heard the latter mention Emma. It was good that Emma had sent a report to her already. She also needed to send a report to Emma. She had seen her too in the dream.
Quickly, she strolled toward them, making sure to avoid the ball which didn’t seem friendly.
When she got to Freya, still clutching her doll tightly, especially when the monster snarled at her, she sighed in relief when the latter carried her up
“Don’t worry, Eva. The bad one wont hurt you.” Freya comforted her, before gesturing to Maya with her hands to come to her. Maya obliged.
When Maya got to Freya, the latter handed Eva over to her, before pointing to the doll.
“Can I have your doll, Eva?” She asked Eva who widened her eyes at the question. The little girl was wondering what an adult like Freya would want with her favourite doll.
“Well, Eva…I need it to put away this bad spirit so that it doesn’t hurt your mom, daddy or Derek. So that it doesn’t hurt Emma.” Freya said, reading the reluctance in Eva’s eyes.
Melvina stood up then, not happy that her little daughter of no more than five years old was dragged into this mess. She wanted to speak out, but Derek held her back and shook his head.
But she shook off his hand, and stepped forward on the podium, aware that Sheila had her eyes trained on her movement, wondering what she was about to say or do.